184 Transactions of the American Institute. 



(up stairs by the side of a chimney, in which fires are regularly 

 kept, is best). "We use them all winter. 



8KUNK8 KILLING MEADOW MICE. 



The same party tells the Club that the skunks had cleared out 

 the rats on his place. I never knew before that they would catch 

 rats, but I have long known them for most excellent mousers. 

 Quite a number live and rear their young under my hay stacks, and 

 I have tried very hard to protect them, but people will kill them 

 in spite of remonstrance. They not only clear out the meadow 

 mice from the meadows and pastures, but they are very fond of 

 grubs, as you may see any morning, by going into the nearest cow 

 lot, to their haunts — ^you will see a great number of very small 

 deep holes, where they have been digging up the beetle grub. 

 Will the Club put in a plea for these serviceable little animals? 



HINTS ABOUT HOP-HOUSES. 



Mr. S. Edwards Todd. — The construction of a hop-house is very 

 much a matter of taste, and there is no more propriety in pr.escrib- 

 ing inflexible dimensions and proportions than there would be in 

 making such conditions for the construction of a barn or farm-house. 

 Very wide latitude may be allowed for the means and wants of the 

 owner, both as to proportions and materials. Where stone is 

 accessible, and the circumstances of the farmer will permit, stone 

 is the best material to use; because it is safer from fire, and retains 

 the heat better during the drying season. 



A hop-kiln twenty feet square answers extremely well for the 

 purposes of a yard of from four to ten acres, although if used for 

 the latter number, with a full crop, the picking would have to be 

 regulated according to the capacity of the kiln, especially at the 

 beginning, when, owing to the quantity of moisture in the green 

 hops, the process of drying is much less rapid than in later stages 

 of picking. A kiln of the size mentioned may have the rafters 

 twenty feet long, starting from each of the four sides, and approach- 

 ing within three feet of each other, in the center, thus leaving an 

 opening three feet square for a ventilator. This opening may be 

 covered by a revolving cowl, or by a fixed slatted ventilator. Upon 

 the ground level there should be numerous openings, say six or 

 eight in all, upon diflfereut sides of the kiln, and these should be 

 fitted with slides, so as to be closed at pleasure. It is important 

 that the area of these openings should, in the aggregate, at least 

 equal — they had better exceed — the area of the opening left in the 



