154 AMERICAN GARDENER. 



pole, a foot from the ground ; take down the poles ; 

 dig down the hills, and with a corn-hoe, open 

 the ground all round the crowns of the plants ; 

 and before winter sets in, cut all close down to 

 the very crowns, and then cover the crowns over 

 with earth three or four inches thick. Through 

 this earth the hop-shoots will start in the spring, 

 You will want but eight of them to go up your four 

 poles ; and the i*est, when three inches long, you 

 may cut, and eat as asfiaragus ; cook them ia 

 the same manner, and you will find them a very 

 delightful -vegetable. This year you put poles 20 

 feet long to your hops. Proceed the same as be- 

 fore, only make the hills larger ; and this year 

 you will have plenty of hops to gather for use. 

 The next, and every succeeding year, you may 

 put poles 40 or 50 feet long ; but they must not be 

 too large at bottom. Be sure to open the ground 

 every fall, and to cut all off close down to the 

 crown of the filants, which, when pared off with a 

 sharp knife, will look like a piece of cork In 

 England, where there are more hops used than in 

 all the rest of the world, it requires four or Jive 

 years to bring a hop hill to perfection. Even then. 

 a pole from 15 to 20 feet long is generally long 

 enough ; and the crop of thirty hills is, upon an 

 average, not more than equal to that of one hill in 

 the hop-plantations on the Susquehannah ; not- 

 withstanding that, on the Susquehannah, they 

 merely plough the ground in spring ;; never open 

 the crowns and pare them down, leave the loose 

 creeping vines together with the weeds and grass 

 to be eaten, in summer, by sheefi^ which also 

 eat the leaves of the mounting vines as ,far as 

 they, by putting their fore feet against the poles* 



