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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



July 



CULTIVATION OF HOPS, 

 In the old adage that "all's well that ends 

 well" there is a truth of most frequent applica- 

 tion in all the affairs of men, but in few, per- 

 haps, more strikingly illustrated than in the 

 business of hop-growing. The soil of the 

 yard may be worked and enriched by the most 

 careful and lavish hand ; no pains may be 

 spared in procuring the best roots and poles, 

 nor in planting and setting them ; the vines 

 may be most carefully trained, the soil most 

 carefully cultivated, and the depredations of 

 insects most assiduously guarded against, and 

 yet from want of care or skill in harvesting 

 and preparing the crop for market, the whole 

 enterprise may prove a failure. In an article 

 written by William Blanchard, and printed in 

 the old New England Farmer for 1834, we 

 find the remark that "hops always grow first 

 sort ; second sort and refuse hops are made 

 so by unskilful management in picking and 

 drying." But notwithstanding this caution, 

 the hops grown in New England declined so 

 much in character, as to cause great complaints 

 by the purchasers in New York and Philadel- 

 phia, in which cities most of our hops were sold. 

 In 1842, on the appointment of Benj. Farns- 

 worth, inspector of hops in Massachusetts, the 

 brewers of Pliiladelphia and of New York ad- 

 dressed a comunication to him, urging a more 

 careful inspection on his part, and also appeal- 

 ing to the growers for a reform in their habits 

 of picking and curing. They said that hops 

 were annually shipped from Boston and other 

 eastern ports, as first sort, and purchased by 

 the consumer at the highest prices, which, upon 

 examination, were found to contain such large 

 quantities of leaves and stems as to render 

 them unfit for use. We are not informed as 

 to Mr. Farnsworth's success in reforming the 

 abuses complained of, and allude to the sub- 

 ject for the simple purpose of enforcing the 

 importance of carefully observing the follow- 

 ing directions, which we condense mainly from 

 Mr. Judd's Hop Culture, for 



Picking and Curing. 



The time for picking hops is determined by 

 rubbing them between the fingers. The seeds 

 should be full and hard, and well studded with 

 small roimd dust, of a golden color, at the 

 base of the scales, and the stem of the hops 

 should have plenty of this "condition," as in 

 this is the weight. If the hop is too ripe, the 

 wind will shake out the seed and dust, and 

 loss of weight will be the consequence. If not 



ripe, these properties have not matured, and 

 the weight will be inferior, but the hops will 

 look better. If there is much picking to be 

 done, and but few hands, it is best to com- 

 mence rather early, for you will probably end 

 late enough. In picking, bins are necessary. 

 A bin consists of a wooden frame and a bag, 

 called a "bin-cloth." This cloth is made 

 from two pieces of sacking, thirty inches wide 

 — one piece eight feet long, for the bottom, 

 the other, twenty-one feet long, for sides and 

 ends — formed into a bag, and suspended in 

 the bin-frame. If necessary,this bag can have 

 a partition in the middle. 



The bin-frame requires two pieces, ten feet 

 long, two by three inches, with the corners 

 taken off and the ends rounded for handles. 

 One foot from each end, bore one and a quar- 

 ter inch hole for four legs two and a quarter 



Fig. 7. Hop Bin-Frame, 



feet long ; also one foot from the end mortice 

 in two end pieces, two and a half feet long, 

 three and a half inches wide, and one and a 

 half inches thick. Brace each leg to the mid- 

 dle of each side piece. At each end put a 

 brace to each leg, and let these braces extend 

 above the top of the frame two and a half feet, 

 and cross each other six inches from their ends. 

 These top pieces are termed the "horns." 

 These crosses are a rest for the pole while the 

 hops are being picked. The vines should be cut 

 about one foot from the ground. The poles 

 are then taken with the vines upon them, and 

 placed against the rest. The hojis are readily 

 picked from the vine into the bin. In England, 

 hop-picking is conducted with much system. 

 An engagement is made with the pickers, the 

 pole-pullers, the measurer, the poke-boy, the 

 carrier, and the dryers. Thus the grower 

 knows what each hand has to do. The ground 

 is staked into lots of twelve hills square, and a 

 stake is placed in the middle. The pickers 

 are divided into companies, to which are as- 

 signed four bins. These bin companies are 

 numbered, that each picker may know where 

 he belongs. With each company is a bin man, 

 whose duty is to pull the poles and carry them 

 to the bins as the pickers recjuire ; he also 

 must help hold the "poke," (a long bag of 

 ten bushels capacity,) must carry the bag to 

 the wagon, strip tiie vines from the poles after 

 they are picked, and help move the bins from 



