68 QUARTERLYJOURNAL. 



As the hop is picked, it is carried to the drying house, where ii 

 is cured. This constitutes the second part of the business of ha 

 growing. 



The drying house consists of one and a half stories. The uppe 

 story is for spreading the hops, and the lower for furnaces, Th( 

 furnaces which Mr. Avery has found after a great many trials to b 

 the best, are constructed somewhat like a large oven, but hoppe: 

 shaped ; the base opens upward, so as to permit the hot air tc 

 communicate with the hops above. Mr. A. has four rooms side b; 

 side of twenty-five square feet each. The floor of each room ii 

 covered with gauze of hemp, with meshes which are one-twelfth oi 

 an inch in diameter. These form the surfaces upon which the hops ai 

 spread, about four or five inches thick. To supply the hot air 

 good maple coal is the best material. It is burnt in furnaces below 

 in one or two shovels full at a time, and such a bed kept burni$j 

 in the six fumaces for twenty-four hours is sufficient to dry th 

 roughly a charge of hops. The hops are then removed througj 

 a lateral door, into another room below, where they are strong! 

 pressed in bags like bales of cotton, when they are ready for mai 

 ket. The labor attending their culture is not yet finished ; Hi 

 poles require to be arranged for winter. This is effected by stacl 

 ing them on the field. They are brought from a number of hilj 

 and placed with the large end slightly in the ground in a leanir 

 position, in a circle. The tops are brought together and the 

 bound by the refuse vines, by which they are secured again 

 winds. They must never lie upon the ground as they would decs 

 much sooner than if preserved in an upright position. 



The present price of hops does not vary much from seven 

 eight cents per pound, formerly they were worth twenty-fii 

 cents. 



Hops may be continuously cultivated on the same field for ten « 

 twelve years. By this time a grub which feeds upon the root h 

 multiplied to such an extent that the whole root has become di 

 eased, and incapacitated to fulfil its functions, and the crop nece 

 sarily fails. There is no other reason why its cultivation mig 

 not be continued longer, as the soil is manured every year, ai 

 preserved in a rich mellow state. The hop, therefore, leaves tl 

 field in a good condition for corn, which usually succeeds, andm« 

 be continued two or three years in succession. The worm whi< 



ffi 



