SECRETARY'S REPORT. 109 



enable three or four to pick into the same one ; but if they are 

 hired by the pound, as they are in many instances, the bins are 

 divided inside into three or four compartments, one of which 

 is allotted to each picker. Females are usually the most ex- 

 pert, and are more frequently employed, while one man or boy 

 attends to do the lifting. A good picker can pick from twenty 

 to thirty pounds a day. They are picked as free as possible 

 from stems and leaves. All unripe or worthless hops should 

 be thrown out. The boxes are emptied twice a day. The 

 process of drying should commence as soon as possible after 

 picking. 



Drying. — Hops are dried, soon after being picked, in a kiln 

 constructed for the purpose. The kiln should be about four- 

 teen feet square at the top, twelve feet deep, and three or four 

 feet square at the bottom. The fire should be made of maple 

 charcoal, directly in the centre of the kiln, and it may be with- 

 out the use of stoves, pipes, funnels, or any thing else ; and 

 growers of the largest experience and most careful experiment 

 and observation confidently assert that the highest and best 

 flavor and quality of hops cannot be perfectly preserved in any 

 other mode. Thin joists should be laid across the top, edge- 

 wise, and laths or slats nailed to them, covered with tow cloth 

 or hair cloth. Care should be taken not to spread the hops 

 too deep upon this cloth covering, and not to stir them after 

 they are spread till they are dry, or nearly so, when they may 

 be carefully turned. 



A farmer already quoted says : " Hops are dried on a kiln 

 over a fire made of charcoal. The kiln is stoned up, in the 

 form of a hopper to a grist mill, from seven to ten feet high, 

 and from nine to fifteen feet across the top. Small timber or 

 joists are placed across the top of the kiln, the smaller the 

 better, about two or three feet apart, and narrow slats fastened 

 to them. A thin tow cloth is drawn tightly over the slats, to 

 receive the hops for drying." 



A writer from Northfield says : " The kilns for drying are 

 made now with an arch and hot-air chamber, under a room 

 where the hops are spread, and hot-air pipes regulating the 

 heat, which requires considerable experience to make them all 



