142 METHOD OF CULTIVATING THE HOP. 



" The stripping and stacking of the poles succeed to the 

 operation of picking. The shoot or bind being stripped off, 

 such poles as are not decayed, are set up together in a coni- 

 cal pile of three or four hundred, the centre of which is 

 formed by three stout poles bound together a few feet from 

 their tops, and their lower ends spread out. 



" The produce of no crop is so liable to variation as that 

 )f the Hop ; in good seasons an acre will produce 20 cwt., 

 but from 10 to 12 cwt. is considered a tolerable average crop 

 The quality of Hops is estimated by the abundance or scarcity 

 of an unctuous clammy powder which adheres to them, and 

 by their bright yellow colour. The expenses of forming a 

 Hop plantation are considerable ; but once in bearings it will 

 continue so for ten or fifteen years before it requires to be 

 renewed. The Hop is peculiarly liable to diseases ; when 

 young it is devoured by fleas of different kinds ; at a more 

 advanced stage, it is attacked by the green fly, red spider, 

 and ottermoth, the larvae of which prey even upon their roots. 

 The honey-dew often materially injures the Hop crop ; and 

 the mould, the fire-blast, and other blights, injure it at differ- 

 ent times toward the latter period of the growth of the plant." 



It appears from an article in the ' Genesee Farmer,' that 

 the culture of Hops is becoming an important branch of hus- 

 bandry in the State of New- York. A correspondent observes, 

 that " as fine samples have been grown in Orange and Ma- 

 dison counties as in any part of the world. The Hop is con- 

 sidered somewhat precarious ; but when the season is good, 

 the profit is very great. The average product may be stated 

 at 700 lbs., though it has reached 1,600 lbs. to the acre ; and 

 in the latter case the expenses amounted to sixty dollars. 

 The ordinary, or average price, may be stated at eighteen 

 cents per pound. The profits on an ordinary crop, accord- 

 ing to these assumed data, would be about seventy dollars to 

 the acre. It often falls materially short of this, however, 

 from the want of knowledge and care in gathering and dry- 

 ing the crop. 



