229 



purposes to which the hop is applied. It would be an improve- 

 ment to have a long screw, or a box sufficient to hold the usual 

 quantity put into a bag, so as to avoid treading upon them : 

 and it would be desirable to find some better method to take 

 them from the kiln than that which is now practised, in shov- 

 ing them off the kiln while warm and very brittle. 



This farmer suggests farther a plan for removing the hops 

 from the kiln, which he thinks would be useful. To a kiln 

 twelve feet square, on the top make eight boxes or cribs three 

 feet by six ; put laths on the bottoms of them and some short 

 pieces of rope in the corners of these cribs, for handles. Fill 

 them in with green hops ; place the boxes, when filled, over 

 the kiln to be dried, and when dry carry these boxes with the 

 hops into the loft where they are to be deposited. Leave 

 these boxes there unemptied, and have another set of boxes to 

 place upon the kiln ; when the second course becomes dry 

 take them to the loft and leave them as before, emptying the 

 first set of boxes, and using them for the third kiln, and so on 

 alternately. In this way the hops, with care, may be kept 

 nearly as whole as when plucked from the vines ; and this 

 would add much to their value. 



The packing machine should be directly under the loft, so 

 as to avoid the necessity of moving them beyond the putting 

 them down through a scuttle into a bag to guide them into the 

 box. The head of the screw should come up into the loft and 

 there be turned by a large lever. 



The hop is an uncertain crop and liable to many casualties ; 

 but it will be seen by the table given in the Appendix,* that, 

 for more than thirty years, it has been among tlie best crops 

 grown, averaging a profit of more than $100 per acre. The 

 crop exhausts the soil less than almost any crop usually grown. 

 After hops have been cultivated several years on a particular 

 spot, the soil is in a condition to bear large crops of grain, roots 

 and hay. 



The consumption in the United States is estimated at one 



* Appendix, E. 



