232 now TO make the farm pay. 



Cover from two to four inches deep, press the earth firmly about 

 them, and mark the place with a stake. 



The male plants should be set at regular distances of eight 

 hills and eight rows apart, making from eight to twelve male 

 plants to the acre. They should be distinctly marked so that 

 they can be known at a glance. Keep all weeds and grass out 

 by means of plow, cultivator, and hoe. Any hoed 'crop can be 

 cultivated between the rows the first year. Corn or potatoes 

 are commonly planted. The old system of training to stakes 

 sixteen to twenty feet high was clumsy and expensive. A 

 much better and cheaper system is as follows : When your 

 plants are three or four inches high, set a stake at each hill, 

 eight feet out of the ground. The best and cheapest stakes are 

 sawed one and one quarter inches square, and coated with tar. 

 The tar preserves the stakes, and is offensive to the hop louse. 

 The first year the vines are trained to these stakes alone. The 

 second year the tops of the stakes are connected by twine and 

 the vines run all over the top of the yard. 



At the maU hills, put a stout high pole, eighteen or twenty 

 feet long, and let the male vine run up, so that its pollen may 

 be distributed on the others. The cost of this method is one 

 third that of the old method, and has great advantages in 

 gathering the crop. 



The hop louse is the only insect that injures the plant to any 

 great extent. 



They can be destroyed by thoroughly dusting fine plaster 

 among the leaves and stems. If done early, say the first week 

 in July, one application will generally rid the vines wholly of 

 them, but if they appear again give them another. 



Burn the vines that are cut up in the fall. The work in suc- 



ceedmg years consists in keeping out grass, weeds, and worms. 



' Tn spring, the yard, as soon as dry enough to work, must be 



