212 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



fiix acres trained upon wires in this way was all destroyed by a single 

 flash of lightning. 



Frost, both spring and autumn, sometimes injures hops. If the plants 

 are injured when about a foot high it is best to go over the yard and cvd off 

 the frosted plants, and trust to new shoots. A severe frost in autnmn 

 injures the crop. As to the rapidity of picking, I knew one yard of four- 

 teen acres at Rochester picked in five days. One of the acres, which 

 yielded 1,C00 lbs., was picked in two hours. It will take thirty good hands 

 to pick an acre a day. A first rate picker will average from 50 to 60 Ibs- 

 of cured hops per day. 



Dr. Ward. — What manure do you use ? 



Mr. Collins. — Most of our hop growers keep cows, the manure of which 

 is used on the hop grounds. Ashes are also good. 



Mr. Bergen. — How do you start a new yard ? 



Mr. Collins. — There are sets I'unning under the ground, this root we cut 

 into pieces four or five inches long, each having a pair of eyes, then we 

 dibble in so that the whole is covered. 



The remarks of Mr. Collins were listened to with marked attention, and 

 at its close a vote of thanks was unanimously tendered for his interesting 

 discourse upon the Hop culture. 



Flower Culture and Distribution of Flower Seed. 



A few weeks since Mr. Wm. R. Prince sent in a quantity of flower seed 

 for distribution by the Club. This being noticed in the published reports 

 of the Club, brought numerous letters, a portion of which were referred to 

 Mr. R. G. Pardee, with the request that he would make a brief report, add- 

 ing some remarks upon flower cultivation. 



The following is his interesting report: 



" Prompt and earnest responses from Maine to Minnesota, from Nebraska 

 to Kentucky, and often from most secluded locations, have come as appli- 

 cants for a few choice flower seeds, showing how the spirit of enthusiastic 

 love of flowers lives among the people. I have looked over the letters of 

 between 200 and 300 ladies, and make a few brief extracts. I wish there 

 was time and room for more of these pleasant epistles. One lady in the 

 far interior of Minnesota says: 'All our flower seeds and bulbs were 

 destroyed by a fire which consumed our new house and household furniture 

 on the 24th December, 1863, and I shall, therefore, thankfully receive some 

 seeds, as I have always had choice flowers from childhood, and think any 

 place desolate and lonely without them.'" 



Says another lady in one of the Middle States: "I am not rich enough 

 to buy flowers, but I dearly love them. They seem to bring the angels 

 nearer to earth and breathe over our spirits beautiful thoughts and tender 

 affections of the better land where they dwell, and lift us above the gross- 

 ness and selfishness of earth. I have often thought that the sweet face of 

 my angel daughter looked at me from the purple and golden petals of a 

 pansey. The dear flowers, who could not love them. Poor indeed is that 

 heart that loves them not." 



Another lady from Wisconsin also says: " I shall receive the seeds with 



