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They should be ploughed and hoed three times in a season ; 

 this will be two days' work, or two dollars each time. One 

 thousand pounds of hops to an acre is a fair yield ; and one 

 pound to a hill is the general average. Sometimes more than 

 two pounds are obtained to a hill : and there are about eight 

 hundred hills to an acre. 



Three girls, at fifty cents per day each, will ordinarily pick 

 one hundred pounds per day. During the time they are occu- 

 pied in picking an acre, the service of one man to take down 

 poles, &c. will be required for two days. 



The kiln for drying is eleven feet square ; seventy-five to 

 one hundred pounds are dried at a time. One hundred bushels 

 of coal are required to dry a ton of hops ; the coals cost eleven 

 cents per bushel. Hops are taken to dry at one dollar and 

 twenty-five cents per one hundred pounds, including coal. 

 Thirty-three and a half cents are paid for packing, pressing 

 and sewing bag. Two hundred pounds are put in a bag ; the 

 cost of gunny-bags is ten to eleven cents each, and four gunny- 

 bags will make a pack; the bags will weigh from four to six 

 pounds ; this weight is included in the weight of hops, and 

 this pays for the bag. Three cords of manure are required 

 annually to an acre. Hops must not be poled too early, and 

 the poles must be proportioned to the size of the hop. Small 

 hops do not do well on large poles. Half a cent per pound is 

 paid for the inspection. This farmer has contracted for five 

 years to sell his hops at thirteen cents per pound. 



He speaks of a neighbor in another town who produced four 

 thousand pounds on two acres. The price was then very high. 

 He sold his crop for forty cents per pound, making sixteen 

 hundred dollars. This is a remarkable case. The price is ca- 

 pricious and fluctuating. 



An experienced and excellent farmer in Groton states, that 

 liops cannot be raised to advantage for less than fifteen cents 

 per poimd. With him, hemlock poles cost four dollars per hun- 

 dred, and with care will last seven or eight years. He places 

 seven hundred hills to an acre ; they will usually average one 



