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THE DIVERSIFIED FARM. 



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& In diversified farming- by irrigation lies Ine salvation of agrietilture. (fl 



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THE AGE wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department, and with 

 this object in view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and 

 pictures of fields, orchards and farm homes: prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. 

 Also sketches or plans of convenient and commodious barns, hen houses, corn cribs, 

 etc. Sketches of labor-saving devices, suce as ditch cleaners and watering troughs. 

 A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. Will you help 

 us to improve the appearance of THE AGE ? 



THE HOP INDUSTRY. 



The growing of hops for commercial use 

 is a farm specialty, net so generally adap- 

 ted as the market demands warrant, The 

 principal hop districts are in New York, 

 Wisconsin. California, Oregon and Wash- 

 ington. If soil and climatic conditions 

 are favorable hops yield from 1,000 to 

 2,000 pounds per acre. At present prices 

 the income will range from $150.00 to more 

 than double that amount for an acre. As 

 the vines require planting only once in 

 many years, the crop is one of profit, and 

 suited to our modern ideas of intensive 

 soil culture. 



Hops need a well draiued, sandy loam roll- 

 ing land being preferable. The plants are 

 set six feet apart either way. after the land 

 has been carefully prepared and leveled, 

 to prevent any low places for water to 

 stand and kill out the roots. Hops ex- 

 haust the potash elements of the soil quick- 

 er than any other substance, and necessi- 

 tate the annual use of fertilizers containing 

 a good per centage of potash. In ordinary 

 fields the application of 1. 000 pounds of 

 fertilizers containing ten per cent potash, 

 eight per cent phosphoric acid and three 

 percent nitrogen, is necessary every spring, 

 to insure satisfactory results. 



In the famous Yakinia Valley of central 

 Washington, about three thousand acres 

 are planted to hop vines, and the income 

 from this area this season will aggregate 



$500,000 or more. The roots are planted 

 in the spring and cultivated the same as 

 corn. The first year there are no returns, 

 but with care, the yanls continue producing 

 for twenty years, without transplanting. 

 The first season the vines must be trellis- 

 ed. This is done by setting poles, about 

 two by four inch scantlings, ten feet long, 

 in the ground even' twelve feet. Wires 

 are then stapled to the poles, six or seven 

 feet above ground, and the .vines trained 

 up. 



The aphis or louse is the chief hop 

 enemy. This can be destroyed by spray- 

 ing the blossoms with arsenical compounds 

 similar to those used for orchards. If the 

 season is dry the aphis seldom does harm, 

 and if too much rain falls during the period 

 from ripening to picking the burrs are 

 liable to mold or mildew. Picking is done 

 by hand, an average picker, gathering 

 about two hundred pounds per day. The 

 green hops are taken to dry houses, where 

 they are spread out upon the floor or special 

 drying cloths. The drying process requires 

 twenty-four hours, when the hops are 

 pressed into bales of 200 pounds each and 

 placed on the market. As a general rule 

 hops lose three fourths weight in drying. 



Those who have been engaged In the hop 

 industry for many years estimate that the 

 original cost of a yard of ten acres, includ- 

 ing plants, cultivation, dry house and com- 

 plete equipment is about 8200.00 an acre 



