HARVESTING THE CROP. 173 



wood as a fulcrum the lever is thrust deeper as the pole 

 is raised. 



Numerous efforts have been made to perfect a 

 hop-picking machine. It is only a question of time be- 

 fore some device of the kind will become practical, if, 

 indeed, one or two machines are not already worthy of 

 general introduction. They will doubtless be so altered 

 and improved, however, that it hardly seems expedient 

 to devote more space to them here. 



When the harvest is completed, the poles should 

 be carefully piled or stacked, all vines and strings col- 

 lected and burned to destroy eggs of insects or fungi 

 (or the vines may be used as stated on Pages 21 and 

 77), and the plants dunged with stable manure if the 

 land is at all poor. Many are careful not to cut the 

 vines at the bottom, where the trellis system is used, 

 but let them remain until killed by frost, in order to 

 mature the root, when the vines are cut and gathered. 

 Sometimes the vines are cut into short pieces and 

 plowed under. 



FIG. 90. TENT TRAINING. 



