234 now TO make the fakm pay. 



of a purple color. Some portions of the yard will ripen earlier 

 than others, aud here the work should commence. Do not 

 hurry the picking too fast at first, but after a few days, when 

 fully ripe, put on all your force and secure the crop. The cleaner 

 the hops arc picked the better price they will bring. A man who 

 baa the reputation of picking his hops clean and putting them 

 up nicely, will find sale for them, even if the market is dull. 



Get the best pickers; pay the best prices; feed the pickers 

 well, and treat them well, and you will have clean hops. 



The most expensive part of the hop culture is kiln drying ; 

 but large cultivators can afford it ; and if three or four smaller 

 cultivators, owning contiguous lands, would combine to erect 

 a kiln for their common benefit, they could readily compete with 

 the larger growers. The kiln has usually four apartments, the 

 stove room, dry room, store room, and press room. The kiln 

 should have a good draft ; it is directly over the stove room, and 

 separated from it by a slat floor, and a moveable wire or hemp 

 carpet. The hops are spread on this carpet, twenty to twenty- 

 four inc'hes deep, (except those first picked, which are green, 

 and should not be more than twelve inches deep,) and fires im- 

 mediately built in the stoves, of large seasoned wood, and kept 

 up until the hops are all dry, usually eight to twelve hours. 

 Next to the dry room is the sto^c room, which should be kept 

 perfectly dark while the hops are in it. The press room is 

 underneath the store room. The pressing and baling can be 

 done on rainy days, from four to six weeks after drying. The 

 Harris press is the best we know of for pressing and baling, 

 but any screw press can be made to do the work. 



Hemp and Flax. Hemp can be grown on any good corn 

 land with profit, and as the supply never equals the demand we 

 consider it a sure and profitable crop. It has a long tap root 

 and the soil should be plowed deep and subsoiled. The surlure 



