AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 195 



The glass-house farms for flowers are supplemented 

 by open field areas for the propagation of certain 

 types of plants. The industry is subdivided along 

 the lines of types of flowers produced as the other 

 forms of crop production are subdivided. Eoses, 

 carnations, gladiolas, peonies, violets, orchids, and 

 others become the particular sphere of individual 

 growers. 



SPECIAL CROPS 



Hops were once widely grown and important. 

 For the last twenty years the production has been 

 decreasing, due to the development of disease, espe- 

 cially mildew, and to competition from other parts 

 of the country, particularly the Pacific Coast states. 

 From the beginning of the growth of hops in Madison 

 County in 1816, when James D. Cooledge marketed 

 a bale in New York City, the area expanded until in 

 1880 it amounted to nearly 40,000 acres. Since that 

 date it has been decreasing, first slowly but in the 

 last fifteen years at a rapid rate until now it is less 

 than a fifth of what it was formerly. In 1909, 

 12,000 acres were reported. In the height of their 

 production hops were grown throughout the middle 

 of the State and in the extreme northern part. 

 The chief area of production has always been along 

 the southern side of the Mohawk Valley. Here the 

 hop dry houses, frame structures with a wind-vein 

 ventilating hood on the roof, most of them now 

 abandoned, are a conspicuous feature of the farm 

 building group. The other important center of pro- 



