THE GEOGRAPHY OF GROTON. 65 



CULTIVATION OF HOPS. 



Grotox, July 13, 1S97. 

 Dr. Samuel A. Green, Boston : 



Dear Sir, — My reply to your inquiry as to the culture of hops 

 in the northwestern part of Middlesex County and the northeastern 

 part of Worcester County during the first half of this century, 

 must, in the nature of the case, be brief and imperfect. I can 

 only conjecture the time when the cultivation of hops there began, 

 but the probability is very strong that it was during the last decade 

 of the last century. My grandfather, Jacob Marshall, who lived in 

 Lunenburg, was a hop raiser, and his experience in that business 

 must have been as early as the first part of the present century. He 

 was the inventor of the press for pressing hops, which was after- 

 ward and almost immediately used for pressing cotton also. 



The power for pressing hops, used by him and used in that dis- 

 trict as long as hops were raised, was the screw as appHed in a 

 common cider mill. The hop vine was trained, or trained itself, 

 perhaps, on poles, which in the culture were from two to four 

 inches in diameter at the base and fourteen to fifteen feet in length. 

 The hills in the field were set at a distance of perhaps five feet 

 apart, and averaged about one thousand to an acre. 



The picking commenced usually in the last week of August, and 

 continued often until far into the first half of September. The 

 vines were cut and the poles taken out of the ground by men and 

 laid upon long bins sufficient to receive the entire length of the 

 vine, which was usually not less than twelve feet. The picking was 

 done by young people, boys and girls, who stood on each side of 

 the bin. 



The product from one acre was about 1,000 pounds, or a pound 

 to a hill, of dry hops. The drying was carried on in a building 

 erected for the purpose, the liops being laid over lattice-work on 

 the floor ; and a fire of charcoal underneath furnished the heat for 

 drying. This process was a delicate one, as it was necessary to 

 extract all the moisture from the hops and to avoid scorching, as 

 that injured the value in the market. 



In the period of time when I had some knowledge of the trade 

 in hops, say from 1836 to 1846, the price varied from ^lo or $12 to 

 $50 per bale, of about 200 pounds. The product of an acre in 

 money, therefore, never exceeded about $250, and more frequently 



