Proceedings of the Faemees' Club. 447 



training the vines. One pole to the hill, he says, is my mode of 

 training, and no twine, with two vines to the pole. That gives air 

 and sun to the hops. Thick foliage, wet weather, a sheltered position, 

 and barn-yard manures, bring lice and blue-mould to hops. You 

 want to give all the air and sunshine possible. Olindorfs plan does 

 this. 



Mr. James A. Whitney. — Mr. Chairman : Twenty or thirty years 

 ago hop-poles were plenty and comparatively cheap in the section 

 mentioned, but within a few years past poles have become very 

 expensive, and twine is extensively used as a substitute. The Collins' 

 yard was one of the very first twine, and very good crops have been 

 grown with it. The notion that it harbors the vermin is not in 

 accordance with my own- experience, for some of the best hops I ever 

 saw were on strung yards, while some that were infested with lice 

 the worst ^yere on the old-fashioned poles. There are very few hop- 

 growers that would be willing to get along with but one pole to the 

 hill. 



DfiEP Plowing in Otsego. 



Mr. Ferris also gives his experience in deep plowing. He says: 

 western New York has had some experience in winter wdieat and 

 clover, and those farmers plow deep in the heat of the summer for those 

 crops. I have dug up and manured red clover roots over four feet 

 long that grew in made soil. Two years ago I set out a young 

 orchard, and the same spring seeded it to timothy and clover. The 

 ground had been plowed five inches deep ; but around the trees I 

 spaded the soil two feet to give the. young trees a start. Last summer 

 I mowed the grass, and around the trees where it had been worked 

 to a depth of two feet, the timothy heads were twelve inches long — ■ 

 straw and head five'' feet — while two feet distant the grass was not 

 more than half as large. The subsoil was gravely loam, descending 

 to the south. I find I can make an almost worn out soil produce a 

 good crop of potatoes or hops by deep plowing. He goes on to say 

 that late plowing is bad, and such work should be done only in mid- 

 summer. 



Mr. William Lawton. — On clay lands I am persuaded that foil 

 plowing is not only safe, but a manifest advantage. The frost is a 

 great subduer of soils ; and a stiff clay, after being exposed for a win- 

 ter, is greatly improved. 



Mr. James A. Whitney. — I have, wnthin ten miles of the village of 



