94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that it is valuable as a compost with barn-yard manures, or 

 with guano. 



The introduction of improved machinery for farming pur- 

 poses marks the progress of agriculture, and foreshadows the 

 advantages to be expected hereafter from the application of 

 science to this art. Implements are now constructed on strict- 

 ly scientific principles. Among those lately introduced, by 

 way of experiment, is the mowing machine. About one hun- 

 dred and fifty of these machines have been used in this State 

 the last year. There is no doubt that such improvements 

 will be made in it as to make it exceedingly valuable,' and 

 indeed, on many farms, quite indispensable. 



CULTURE OP THE HOP. 



I have very often been applied to for information respecting 

 the cultivation of hops. The inquiry upon this subject has 

 become so great, and the sources of information are so few, on 

 account, probably, of its being a local product, that it seems 

 important to state the results of my studies and observation 

 upon it. Having spent the early part of my life in the immedi- 

 ate vicinity of a hop-growing district, and having subsequently, 

 in the course of my investigations, connected with official duties, 

 obtained many statistics and facts from successful growers in 

 this Commonwealth, I have determined to imbody them in the 

 form of a report upon this crop. 



Its Natural History. — The hop [humulus) is a hardy, herba- 

 ceous plant, of the nettle order, constituting a genus by itself, 

 under the name of Lupulus. The common American name for 

 it is from the old Saxon hoppan, "to climb. - ' and the generic 

 botanical term, humulus, is from the Latin humus, fresh, earth, 

 and applied to it on account of the natural habits of the plant, 

 when left to itself, of creeping along the -round. Its Bpecific 

 botanical name, Lupulus, was given it by the Romans, because 

 when growing among the willows it twined around and choked 

 them, proving as destructive as the wolf. The old English 

 name signified the "bane of the wolf." 



The male and female plants are distinct from each other, 

 the cup of the former having five stamens or leaves, that of the 



