158 



GENESEE FARMER. 



July. 



Hop Calture. — - Drying, SlC. I of" a spout on the' lower side of the kiln, and car- 



I ried to the hop house chamber, underneath which 



Mr. Editor :— In describing the method ot^j is the press, consisting of two upright posls, with 

 drying liops, so as to be understood by one wholly j a beam across near the top, and two sills at the 

 unacquainted with the business, I will firet give I bottom, to support the posts and prevent them 

 a description of the kiln, which has been, here- j raising. There is also a screw passing through 



tofore, the kind used — at any rate, the kind we 

 have used a number of years, with good success. 

 It is built by digging into a side-hill to the 

 perpendicular depth of about 7 feet below a line 

 level with the upper side — digging the space for 



the center of the beam, under which is fitted a 

 box made of plank, so as to be taken to pieees. 

 The inner side of the box is 4* feet long, Ih feet 

 wide, and 4 to 5 feet high. When the box is 

 fitted for pressing a cloth is placed under it, and 



the bottom 6 feet square, and for the top about two men tread in hops till it is full, when another 

 14 feet ; laying a tier of stone, a foot thick, on cl'^^^ is put on the top. The follower is then 

 the four sides, with a soace for a door through P^t on, and the screw turned down as far as de- 

 the wall on the lower side. Sills are then placed ^^--ed, when the box is taken to pieces-the cloth 

 on the wall, into which are fitted joists 3 feet ! bi'ought together on the sides and sewed— the 

 apart, on which the floor is lain, consisting of screw turned back-the bale of hops taken up- 

 slats U inches square placed about 1 inch apart, another piece of cloth sewed on each end, and 

 over which is drawn a coarse linen cloth fastened | ^f^en it is ready for market. 

 to the sills on the sides. Another tier of sills isi In the above statement I have taken only a 

 then put on, to which is fastened the roof ; j practical view of the subject ; but in building a 

 then the gable ends are boarded up, leaving a kiln, the approved method would be to build it 

 door in one end, and a window in each end to of wood, above the ground, being some 10 feet 



let off the steam. Now, after burning 5 bushels 

 of charcoal underneath to heat the kiln, it will 

 be ready to receive the hops, which are conveyed 

 to the kiln in sacks, (made of 4 to 5 yards of 

 cloth each,) and poured on to the cloth to the 

 depth of 8 or 9 inches, spreading them evenly 

 with a rake, taking care to move your feet close 

 to the cloth, so as not to tread on the hops. Af- 

 ter the hops are on and windows left open above, 

 it will require much judgment and practice to 

 know how much coal to use, and how often to 

 put it on ; which must be regulated by practice, 

 as too much heat will spoil the hops ; and again 

 if the heat is not regularly kept up, after the 

 steam has started, it will settle back on to the 

 hops and spoil them. Yet the quantity of coal 

 to be used, for the kiln I have described, will 

 vary but little from three pecks at a time, put on 

 once an hour. 



Roll brimstone, or sulphur, is often used in 

 drying hops. We prefer sulphur, and use it in 

 the following manner : as soon as the hops are 

 pat on, close the windows aboye ; put on some 

 coal below, and when it becomes coals of fire, 

 put on 5 or 6 large table spoonfuls of sulphur, 

 that the steam of it may all take effect on the 

 hops at once, thereby opening the pores making 

 them look better when dried. In 5 or 10 min- 

 utes after the sulphur is put on the windov\s must 

 be thrown open, and remain so till the steam all 

 passes off; when they may be closed again, and 

 in a short time the hops may be stirred up — those 

 from the outer sides brought into middle — those 

 moved to the sides and all leveled as before. To 

 determine when they are dry enough to takeoff, 

 will require some experience ; yet by examining 

 the stem of the hop and finding it tough with no 

 juice in it, may be considered a good test. The 

 hops, when dry, are taken into sackjj by means 



below the cloth — the sides perpendicular, and 3 

 feet above the cloth to the eaves — the inner side 

 of the walls lathed and plastered from the ground 

 to the eaves. Some burn wood in such kilns by- 

 making use of stoves. 



After all is said and done, hop raising is not 

 generally considered safe business, unless the 

 price exceeds 10 cents j^er pound. 



Yours, &c., Lincoln Cummings. 



Augusta, Oneida Co., N. Y., 1847. 



The Romance of Rural Life. 



Mr. Editor : — Your correspondent, 0. C. 

 CoMSTOCK, Jr., comes down upon me with a wet 

 sail, for saying that the farmers' sons of Western 

 Nevv' York prefer a "barefoot life, in the wild 

 west, to labor in their father's neglected fields at 

 home." 



It was not my intention to cross any man's in- 

 terest, who has a few quarter sect/ions to sell in 

 Micliigan — much less to underrate the advanta- 

 ges and the true poetry of life, ofiered to the emi- 

 grating farmer boy, by the wild flowering prai- 

 ries of the west. 



"I'd sooner stop the unchained dove, 

 When swift returning to his home of love," 

 than rob the emigrant of that prestige of future 

 bliss, which is to cheat sickness of its pain, and 

 prevent labor from bringing weariness with it. 

 I only wished to explain, as explicitly as possible, 

 some of the causes which had contributed to de- 

 crease the population of some of New York's 

 best alluvial domains ? If my simile, " barefoot," 

 when applied to the privations of the new settler, 

 is offensive to any one, my excuse is, that it is 

 neither a plagiarism nor a fiction ; it was foixsed 

 on me by the evidence of my own eyes. Twenty 

 years ago I traveled two days in the north part 



