28 



NEW ENGLAISTD FARMER. 



Jan. 



HOP KAISIN"Q AT THE "WEST. 



HE hop rais- 

 ers in Wis- 

 consin and 

 in Michigan 

 appear to 

 have come 

 to grief 

 very sud- 

 denly. We 

 have been 

 told, during 

 several 

 weeks past, 

 that their 

 crops were 

 greatly in- 

 jured by lice 

 and blight. 

 But it seems 

 there are more hops in the market than can be 

 disposed of at a remunerative price. Three 

 years ago hops sold for from Gfty to sixty cents, 

 and now they are selling in New York from 

 five to twenty five cents per pound. 



Having been familiar with the business of 

 hop raising in our younger days, we were 

 called upon two years ago to write upon the 

 subject, with the view of encouraging the far- 

 mers in New England to go into the business ; 

 but we objected because we did not believe 

 that they would find it for their interest to do 

 so. We did, however, at the special request 

 of many subscribers, publish directions forthtir 

 cultivation, but have frequently cautioned far- 

 mers not to make hops a specialty. Hop rais- 

 ing has always been a very uncertain business, 

 and the price has been extremely fluctuating. 

 Fifty years ago we knew the price to vary from 

 seventy- five cents to eight cents per pound. 



We are told the Wisconsin farmers propose 

 to plough up their old hop yards. The same 

 thing happened within our experience in for- 

 mer times. When hops were fifty cents per 

 pound every body rushed into hop raising ; 

 when they fell to ten or eleven cents, every 

 body ploughed them up. Now this is unwise. 

 Those who are in the business and hove made 

 investments in kilns and bins, and the appara- 

 tus necessary for carrying it on, will be able 

 to go on without making any further out- 

 lay, while the present low prices wdl deter 

 others from going into it, and consequently 



they will have the field to themselves. The 

 profit of hop raising must not be estimated by 

 the result of any single year ; but, like insur- 

 ance, by the results of a series of years. In 

 insurance, the result of one year or of two 

 years may be disastrous, and yet when pur- 

 sued for a number of years it proves a profit- 

 able business. 



The demand for hops is limited, and while a 

 short supply always greatly increases the price, 

 a small amount above the demand always de- 

 presses it. It would be as unwise for the hop 

 raisers to plough up their vines, as it is for the 

 wool growers to sell off their sheep, because 

 wool is low. 



Hop raising cannot be profitably carried on 

 except where the poles are cheap, and the land 

 is good. In New England young trees are 

 worth too much to be cut up for hop poles. 

 They had better stand till they are large 

 enough to cut for fuel or timber. Fifty years 

 ago birch poles were worth $2.50 per hun- 

 dred, now they are worth six or seven dol- 

 lars, and maple and oak poles are worth ten 

 dollars, and the poles are an important item in 

 hop raising. 



But our great objection to hop raising in 

 New England is that it requires a large amount 

 of manure, and makes no manure in return. 

 The farmer who cultivates a hop field well, 

 so as to get a good yield, has no means left 

 for a crop of corn or grass, and of course his 

 stock soon fails, and he will have no manure 

 to apply even to his hops. Where the soil and 

 climate are such that a heavy dressing of ma- 

 nure is necessary in the culture of hops, the 

 business is perfectly ruinous to the farm— as 

 any farm operations must be in the end, that 

 do not furnish food for stock. Without con- 

 suming the crops on the farm, the farmer's 

 business must soon come to an end, unless the 

 soil will yield a crop without manure. In the 

 n w lands of Wisconsin we suppose a crop of 

 hops may be raised for a few years, certainly, 

 with little or no manure. But in New Eng- 

 land this cannot be done. We could not, 

 therefore, conscientiously advise farmers to go 

 into the business. When some commercial 

 manure can be found that will produce a good 

 crop of hops, and some means of training the 

 vines, besides cutting out the thriftiest and 

 straitest young trees in the woods and forests, 

 our views on the subject may change. 



