376 THE HOP CROP. 



should be picked free from leaves, except a few smaller 

 ones, and not in bunches. Hops are now much cleaner 

 picked than they used to be fifty years back. At that 

 period Id. a bushel was a common price for a good crop." 

 In the Farnham district hops are picked in a superior 

 manner to any other district : no leaves are allowed to 

 be touched, and the inferior and discoloured cones are 

 sorted out and put by themselves ; the samples are accord- 

 ingly more even, and fetch ordinarily the highest price 

 in the markets. Mr. Paine thus describes the mode of 

 harvesting as practised in the Farnham district : l " On 

 the larger hop-farms the pickers, consisting chiefly of 

 cottagers from the neighbouring districts where hops are 

 not cultivated, are divided into "companies/' which 

 occupy fifty or sixty baskets or bins, two women, or a 

 woman and her children, picking into each, so that there 

 are usually about 150 persons in each company. Baskets 

 or bins are used indifferently, according to the predilec- 

 tion of the planter. They hold 7 to 8 bushels each, of 

 9 imperial gallons to the bushel, and are gauged and 

 marked on the inside with black lines, thereby saving the 

 trouble and hinderance of measuring. Each company is 

 under the superintendence of a hop-bailiff, who keeps a 

 daily Dr. and Cr. account of the earnings and money 

 advanced to each bin's company. Under him are six or 

 seven men, termed pole-pullers, whose duty it is to keep 

 the pickers supplied with poles of hops as they require 

 them, and to assist in carrying the hops, when picked, to 

 the carts. The hops are carefully picked, one by one, into 

 the bins ; and it is the duty of the bailiff to take care that 

 no bunches, or leaves, or mouldy hops, be suffered to 

 remain in the bins or baskets when they are emptied into 

 the surpliers or pokes, in which they are conveyed to the 

 oast-house. The price paid for picking commonly ranges 



1 Cyclop, of Agric.y article "Hop." 



