HOP CULTURE IN 



sloping poles. The present year's crop is very good, and the 

 hops are of excellent quality. The Grapes produce a much 

 greater weight than the Goldings, but the latter being finer 

 in quality, bring a higher price in the market. The pickers 

 are paid l%d. per bushel, and a woman who is a good hand 

 can pick about 15 bushels per day. The season lasts five or 

 six weeks, an<f" the money earned by the number of poor 

 families who assemble from Hobart Town and the neighbour- 

 hood conduces greatly to the comfort during the following 

 winter of those who are sufficiently provident to make a 

 proper use of it. But the sparseness of the population is very 

 likely to prove a hindrance to the increase of hop growing, 

 as already the growers are complaining of the shortness of 

 hands ; for if the hops are not picked directly they are ready, 

 deterioration in quality rapidly ensues ; and as hop merchants 

 are very fastidious in regard to quality, the slightest injury 

 to the sample, from discoloration or any other cause, brings 

 down the price at an apparently disproportionate rate. 



To show the extent to which hop growing is carried on, it 

 may be added that in the New Norfolk and Hobart Town 

 districts there are some 2500 persons, chiefly women and 

 children, employed in picking. All these earn from 4s. to 

 5s. per day, at the prices paid by the proprietors of the hop 

 grounds. 



Mr. Wright has receiving rooms, pressing rooms, and store- 

 rooms ; and has erected an excellent kiln for drying, holding 

 500 bushels of green hops, which, when dry, fill three bales 

 of 2 J cwt. each. The hops require twelve hours to dry, and 

 are once turned in the time. The heat is derived from char- 

 coal and anthracite, both obtained within a short distance. 



