AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NOLITH M.\RKET STREET, (Aobicultuhal Wabehoobe.)-ALLEN PUTNAM, EDITOR. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 31, 1843. 



tNO. 19. 



N, E. FARMER. 



TO HOP GROWERS. 



As I have recently heard complaints from brew- 

 irs and purchasers of hops, that there was not suffi- 

 ient care taken in picking tliem, and that the con- 

 umcrs of the article suffered much loss from stems 

 nd leaves, and the grower hns lost also from the 

 ame cause by the lower marked quality of liis 

 lops, I would respectfully suggest to growers, that 

 ;reat care should be taken to have their hops as 

 ree from stems an<l leaves as possible. Too early 

 icking also is injurious to the strength and quality 

 .fhops. The following are communications which 



have received on the subject from the principal 

 irewers in Philadelphia and New York. 



BENJ. FARNSWORTH, Inspector. 



Philadelphia, Jlu«;. 24(/», 1842. 

 Benj. Farnsworth, Esq, — Sir — The under- 

 igned, brewers of the city of Philadelphia, having 

 een informed of your appointment to the office of 

 nspector of Hops for the State of Massachusetts, 

 eel encouraged to address you briefly on the sub- 

 set. For some years past, the hops grown in the 

 Eastern States have seriously declined in charac- 

 Bt. We believe this to be owing chiefly, if not 

 olely, to gross carelessness, to say no worse, on 

 he part of the grower, at the time of gathering, 

 nd not to any deterioration in the quality of the 

 lant. Vicious habits of picking have been fos- 

 8red by a careless system of inspection. Hops 

 re annually shipped from Boston and other East- 

 rn ports, as first sort, and purchased by the con- 

 umer at the highest prices, which upon examina- 

 ion arc found to contain such large quantities of 

 eaves and stems as to render them unfit for the 

 rewers' use in manufacturing the finer qualities of 

 iquor. In this way the purchaser not only suffers 

 positive loss in weight, but the effect of tliose e.\- 

 raneous substances, when applied to manufacturing 

 urposes, is detrimental in the highest degree, and 

 I lOt unfrequently the cause of irretrievable injury. 

 I t is to these abuses we would invite your atten- 

 ion, for we feel assured that any reform must origi- 

 late in a nice distinction of quality on the part 

 f the Inspector. As long as the producer is offer- 

 ■d a premium for mismanagement and neglect, by 

 laving his inferior article passed current as prime, 

 t seems evident that remonstrance alone will not 

 lave much effect on his conduct. 'J'he ultimate 

 lolicy of this system may well be questioned, liow- 

 :ver advantageous it may seem at first sight; in- 

 leed its effects are already visible in the increas- 

 Dg demand for hops raised in western New York, 

 ind the advance in price which they generally 

 :ommand. This preference, we think, is in some 

 neasure attributable to the care bestowed in the 

 licking, and the superior condition in which they 

 ire brought to market. The benefit resulting from 

 I more rigid system of inspection, would not be 

 ;onfined e.\clusively to one branch of trade : a 

 'radual approximation in quality to the English 

 itandard might reasonably be expected, as the nat 



ural tendency of judicious reform; and in time of 

 foreign demand, the interests of the merchant and 

 exporter would evidently be promoted and perma- 

 nent advantages finally accrue to the grower. Be- 

 lieving a simple statement of facts and their more 

 obvious results to be the most judicious appeal to 

 a candid and honorable mind, we respectfully com- 

 mend our cause and its merits to your favorable 

 construction. 



Y'ours, respectfully, 



M. L. DAWSON & CO., 

 FRANCIS & \VM. S.PEROT, 

 FREDERICK, GAUL & SONS, 

 WM. C. RUDMAN, 

 ABBOTT & NEVVLIN, 

 GRAY, WHITE & CO., 

 SMITH & SECKEL, 

 R. R. TAYLOR. 



Mw York, Sept. 7, 1842. 



Benj. Farnsworth, Esq. — Sir — It having come 

 to the knowledge of the undersigned that you had 

 lately received the appointment for the Inspection 

 of Hops for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

 they would respectfully suggest to you whether, 

 on entering upon the duties of that office, the char- 

 acter of Boston inspection cannot be re-established. 

 The general complaint made within a few years 

 past, of the inspection of Eastern hops, you must 

 be aware has not been made without foundation. 



The advantage to be derived from a fair and uni- 

 form inspection, is not only advantageous to the 

 consumer, but it will also be readily seen that it is 



If it be true, as the above memorials imply, that 

 our hops are decreasing in price, because of care- 

 less picking, growers should be informed of the 

 fact, and all possible efforts should be made to ren- 

 der our hops as good as those from any other sec- 

 tion of the country. — Eu. N. E. F. 



From the Albany Cullivaior. 



SETTING GATE POSTS. 

 Messrs. Editors — As I was about setting a gate 

 post, the Cultivator caine from the oflice ; I sat 

 down to peruse it, and cast my eye on an article 

 giving directions how to set posts. The writer 

 says: Dig your hole something larger than your 

 post; then take water lime and sand, make it into 

 mortar, pick up small stones throw them into it, set 

 down your post, take a shovel and throw in your 

 mortar, fill up the hole and let it stand until it gets 

 hard before using. It struck me that it was an im- 

 provement ; but after a little reflection, I thought I 

 could improve upon it. I therefore set down my 

 post, which was 8 by 10 inches, gathered small 

 stones, filled up the hole with them, made my mor- 

 tar so that it would pour, filled the hole a little 

 rounding with it, so that no water could stand near 

 the post, smoothed it off, let it stand two or three 

 days, and hung my gate, where it has been two 

 years, as firm as the tree before it was cut down, 

 in a solid body of cemented stone, two feet square. 

 As water lime is an article that but few people 

 keep by them, I would say that I have no doubt 

 but mortar made of common lime and sand would 



equally so to the grower, and must be to the mutual be a great improvement in preserving the post as 



advantage of each, as a goad and uniform inspec 

 tion, when known in a foreign market, will be in- 

 quired for, when those that cannot be depended on 

 would be entirely neglected. It should also be 

 borne in mind, that the hops of the State of New 

 York are now as well cured, and better picked, than 

 those of New England, and that while the general 

 character of the former has been improving, that of 

 the latter has been deteriorating. 

 URI BURT, 



SADGEBURY & SHERWOOD, 

 M. P. READ & BROTHERS, 

 M. VASSAR &. CO., 

 ALEX. McLACHLAN, 

 C. & S. MILBANK, 

 BILSBORROW & BULLOCK, 

 DAVID JONES, 

 WM. B. & A. MILES, 

 ALEX. M. GREGORY, 

 J. BURIDGK & CO., 

 JOHN TAYLOR, 

 EGLESTON, PUTNAM & CO., 

 NASH BEADLESTON & CO., 

 GEORGE ROBINSON. 

 Q^^We are indebted to Mr Blanchard for a copy 

 of the above articles, and would thank him for 

 some statistics showing the amount of hops inspect- 

 ed in Massachusetts. We know generally that 

 the business is so extensive that hops are an im- 

 portant item of agricultural produce in the Common- 

 wealth ; but of the particulars we are not informed. 



well as keeping it firm. 



Galway, Saratoga Co., J\r. Y. 



P. OTIS. 



COOKING CORN AND CORN MEAL. 

 We think there can be no safer position assumed 

 in the economy of feeding stock, than that quantity 

 as well as nutriment is essential to their preserva- 

 tion in a healthful condition. If this point be con- 

 ceded, then it follows as a corollary, that both corn 

 and corn meal should be cooked before being fed. 

 This will appear the more manifest when we state 

 these facts : Corn, by being boiled or steamed, will 

 increase in bulk two hundred percent.; while corn 

 meat, by the process of boiling, is increased three 

 hundred and fifty per cent. To make ourselves 

 more distinctly understood, we will remark, that a 

 bushel of corn after being boiled will measure three 

 bushels ; and that to cook a bushel of meal, it re- 

 quires five bushels of water to make it into the 

 consistence of mush, so that every pound of meal in 

 its raw state, will give 4 1-2 pounds of cooked food, 

 with a volume correspondingly increased. These 

 facts should, we think, go far to point out to the 

 observing farmer the advantages to be gained by 

 cooking whatever meal he inay feed to his cows or 

 hogs. — jjmfr. Far. 



The felicity of human life depends on the regu- 

 lar prosecution of some laudable object, that keeps 

 awake all our powers. 



