ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AXD FARMING. 59 



vigor for ten years, and then will decline, but gradually, for 

 ten more, when it is to be broken up. Fifteen years, per- 

 haps, is the average duration of the hop plantations. They 

 exhaust the soil, withdrawing much and returning little to 

 it. Hops vary exceedingly in price in different years, not 

 only on account of the varying supply arising from the 

 uncertainty of yield, but from the quality of the article 

 in different years. The average price in the United States 

 is not far from sixteen cents per pound. Sometimes they 

 rise to thirty, forty, and even fifty cents per pound. 



From the moment of sprouting, in the spring, until the 

 hop is ready for the kiln, they are liable to disaster from 

 insects or disease. Nowhere has more experience been had 

 in their cultivation than in England. Brown says, " they 

 are exposed to more diseases than any other plant with 

 which we are acquainted, and the trade offers greater room 

 for speculation than any other exercised within the British 

 dominions." Parkinson, with a quaint play upon the word 

 hop, says, " the hop is said to be a plant very properly 

 named, as there is never any certainty in cultivating it." 



If the crop is to be planted largely, it would seem 

 plain, from the foregoing, that one should have capital 

 enough to be able to bear some losses, at least, at first. For 

 ordinaiy cultivators, if the experiment is to be made, it 

 would be better to begin with a small plantation at first, 

 embarking more largely as knowledge and skill increase, 

 and as experience determines its profitableness. 



Grape Vines should be trimmed before the sap begins 

 to rise, else they will bleed, to their great injury. If it be 

 neglected till the sap is in motion, let the cultivator wait 

 till the leaves are about the size of a dollar ; then cutting 

 may be pei-forined without injury. 



