SYSTEMS OF CULTIVATION. 39 



should be properly husbanded. Their wearing value may be 

 doubled by pickling 2J feet at the sharpened end with 

 creosote. A tank for the purpose must be erected of size in 

 proportion to the plantation. By the application of creosote 

 soft wood, such as that of the willow, &c., becomes hardened 

 and equal to ash or other more durable sorts. 



" The writef* has a plantation of 75 acres, and a tank 

 12 feet long by 5 wide, and 3J feet deep. This tank will hold 

 1000 best poles put to stand up. The tank must be filled 

 with creosote within 8 inches of the top when the poles are 

 in, when water fully 2 inches deep must be added to prevent 

 evaporation. The tank should boil slowly twenty-four hours, 

 when the poles may be removed and the tank refilled. Care 

 must be taken ^that the tank does not boil over, as creosote is 

 most inflammable, and may take fire. I am so satisfied as to 

 the value of creosoting poles that I never intend to put a new 

 pole into my ground without its aid. If poles were pickled 

 one year under another, and stored in a stack till dry, they 

 would be found to last far longer than if used in a green 

 state. 



" The hop plant has a variety of enemies : on the first 

 appearance of the bine it is frequently attacked by flea, 

 which checks its growth, and makes it look scrubby and 

 unhealthy, but never destroys the crop. Wireworms are a 

 great pest ; the best plan to get rid of them is to cut a 

 potato in half, and place it close on either side the root an 

 inch below the surface ; the potato lures the worm, and, if 

 taken up every other morning for a fortnight, enables you to 

 take a great quantity ; I have known of a dozen being taken 

 from one root. The greatest enemy is the aphis, and I 



