196 RURAL NEW YORK 



duction was in the northern part of Franklin County, 

 around Malone. A small amount has been grown in 

 Livingston and northern Steuben counties. (See 

 Figs. 19, 34.) 



The distribution of hops and particularly their 

 successful growth has been restricted to calcareous 

 soils and a moderately high summer rainfall. The 

 Ontario and Honeoye series, and to some extent the 

 Mohawk soils have carried its chief development. 

 The yield is from 800 to 1500 pounds, the average 

 being near the lower figure. In Oregon, the leading 

 state in the production of hops, the yield averages 

 1000 pounds or more and in California it is over 

 1400 pounds. 



Teasel is better known as a common roadside weed 

 in the noTtheastern quarter of the country. By 

 transfer from England by William Snook a different 

 variety became a farm crop in western Onondaga 

 County in 1840. The town of Skaneateles is the 

 center of its production and it is distributed over an 

 area of perhaps a hundred square miles. The cal- 

 careous Ontario and Dunkirk soils of that region are 

 used for teasel production. The crop is grown for 

 the seed cones, the delicate hooked ends of the scales 

 of which are used to raise the nap on cloth. A good 

 yield is 100,000 cones to the acre. Like other special 

 crops, this one is decreasing in acreage. A mechani- 

 cal appliance for raising the knap on cloth has been 

 devised with which the teasel cones must compete. 



Tobacco is a commercial crop in two regions, — first 

 a territory twenty-five miles in diameter centering 



