No. 85.] 447 



are ground with a little corn, cob and all. They are allowed as 

 much salt, ashes and sulphur as they will eat unmixed with their 

 food ; and as much water as they will drink. Once a week, during the 

 apple season, they are fed a few apples ; when cider is mado, pom- 

 ace is given them. 



Very respectfully yours, 



R. L. PELL. 



HOPS. 



MorrisvilUj JV. Y., January 15th, 1845. 



Sir — At your last exhibition, I exhibited a sample of hops. I 

 have been growing hops for the last thirty years, and I find the soil 

 best adapted to them, is such as will produce the best crops of grass 

 — particularly timothy. To prepare one acre of land, I put on fifty 

 loads of barn-yard manure, (manure taken from the yard of a distil- 

 lery is better ;) spread it all over the ground, — then plow it three 

 times, — drag it, and fix it in the best manner for a crop of corn ; I 

 then furrow it, eight feet apart both ways ; I then put in four pieces 

 of hop root, each six inches long, — when the furrows cross, — and 

 cover them about three inches deep ; I then plant the ground with 

 corn, in the usual way, — being careful to have the hop hill occur be- 

 tween the hills of corn, — and hoe the hops, same as the corn, during 

 the season ; I then harvest the corn in the usual way, and when all 

 is removed, I put four shovels full of manure on each hill of hops, 

 and continue to manure them every succeeding fall, in the same way. 



You will see by the above, that an acre will contain about 660 

 hills, which will require two poles to a hill, of twenty to twenty-five 

 feet long. I find cedar the best timber for poles. You will see that 

 I get no hops until the second year. Then I plow among them, and 

 hoe them as I do corn. In the month of April, I put two poles to 

 each hill, about a foot apart at bottom, leaning the tops forward, and 

 leaving the hop hill between them, and put two vines up each pole, 

 as soon as they grow long enough to wind once round, and tie them 

 with woolen yarn, and wind them with the sun ; all other vines 

 starting, must be kept down. The crop is usually ready for picking 

 about the lOth of September, which is done as follows : The vines 

 are cut off about four feet from the ground ; the pole is then taken 

 down, and laid across a box, where the pickers stand to pick them 

 from the vines ; they must be put up for the drying kiln, the same 

 day they are picked ; the kiln of usual size, is eighteen by thirty feet, 

 — is made, the first story, of stone or bricks, about nine feet from 

 the ground to the first floor, which is timbered with joist, as common 

 buildings, and a floor laid of lath two inches square, with a space of 

 two inches square between them ; the floor is then covered with stout 

 cloth, such as is used in the dairy for straining ; there should be four 

 eighteen inch square holes at the bottom of the walls, to let in suffi- 



