CULTIVATION OF PLANTS. 



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be more valuable to the brewers, and enhance the price of those that should 

 thus be brought to market if skilfully picked and cured. It would also be a 

 good regulation to have all our hop raisers put as near as may be two hundred 

 and twenty pounds in each bag, and have all the bags of about one size, say 

 five feet long, two feet wide, and eighteen inches thick this would be more 

 convenient for the brewer, but particularly so for shipping; and should we be 

 so fortunate as to rescue our hops from their present degraded condition, they 

 will soon be one of our principal articles of commerce. In a letter I received a 

 few days since from a Havre merchant, he remarks, "the American hops are 

 of all qualities, from the Vorgue refuse, to the delicious fragrant German; and 

 if you could establish for yours the reputation of the latter, they would com- 

 mand the market." There is not perhaps amongst the whole range of resins, 

 one so delicate, rich and powerful an aromatic as the hop, nor one more easily 

 destroyed by improper treatment; nor is there another article of produce or 

 manufacture so little understood and so unskilfully managed. 



In connection with two of the largest brewers in the country, we purchased 

 in the Boston market, last fall, a quantity of hops, and in the first shipment of 

 about two hundred bales, there was not, after a careful examination, jointly, 

 over twenty-five bales that ought to have been used, and all those were injured 

 by being picked before, they were ripe. This is not an individual instance; it 

 is a prevailing evil, and of the total amount brought to Albany, speaking within 

 bounds, more than one-half are destroyed or injured by early picking. This 

 evil ought to be at once remedied; but let me caution your raisers not to run. 

 into the opposite extreme, and pick them as much too late. 



For the last fifteen years, I do not recollect a season but repeated instances 

 have come to my knowledge, where the farmer has totally lost his crop by hav- 

 ing it heated from neglect in not drying them well on the kiln. 



How truly mortifying, when the farmer presents his hops, the fruits of a 

 season's anxiety and labour, to be told they are scarcely fit for manure. I do 

 know some men, whom I esteem as men of sense in other matters, year after 

 year bringing their damaged goods for sale, in every other respect a splendid 

 article, and having them heated, and this, after each year's repeated advice 

 and caution. Of the amount of loss from this source, it would be difficult to 

 form an estimate; it is however large. There are more hops injured from 

 partial drying, in seasons when the crops are abundant, than in ordinary years, 

 by not having kiln room enough, hence they are hurried off undried; this evil 

 is easily corrected by having always rather too much than too little kiln room; 

 the additional expense is trifling. 



The next serious injury from want of skill in curing, is that of scorching or 

 burning the hops on the kiln. There are large quantities, every year, of wes- 

 tern hops destroyed or partially injured in this way. Our eastern hop raisers 

 are far before those of our state in curing them on the kiln. Scarcely an in- 

 stance of scorching on the kiln, or heating after being bagged, is known amongst 

 them, and the fault with us must be want of care or skill. 



The hops of this state, as a whole, are not cleanly picked, and are often in- 

 jured by having them heated before going to the kiln. Many have their kilns 

 so low, that the steam does not go off, consequently the hop is stewed in its 

 steam, and by this means materially injured. A common practice of using 

 coal, partially charred, smokes the hops, and their rich flavour is materially 

 injured, and often totally destroyed. That we may not forget, let us recapitu- 

 late our grievances: about one-half our hops are injured by picking before ripe, 

 (our eastern hop raisers do more injury in this respect than our western far- 

 mers,) another part are injured by partial drying, and bagging them in that 

 state; another part are scorched or burned; some are heated before going on 

 the kiln; some stewed on the kiln; some smoked; some gathered with the 

 leaves and vines; some send us brimstoned hops, and a few good fellows bring 

 us as fine hops as any part of the world can boast of, and they ought all of them, 

 or nearly so, to be of this fine quality. 



Let our farmers make exertions to cure their hops as well as our eastern 

 friends, and their hops will find the readiest market and the best price, and 

 will, intrinsically, be near double the value of the eastern, or until the eastern 

 raisers let their hops ripen before they are gathered. It may be justice to our 



