CULTIVATION. 231 



Attempts to pick hops by machinery have not been 

 lacking, an American machine (Looke's) having been brought 

 out for this purpose more than a decade ago ; ^ and in 1894 

 the Mills Hop-picking Machine Company of New York 

 patented an ingenious picker.^ 



• Professor Leplae {Bulletin de I' Agriculture, 1897) has de- 

 scribed a hop picking and sorting machine (Fig. 65) 'invented 

 by C. Wolff, and reports very favourably on- its action, 

 characterising it as a valuable appliance for large growers. 

 As, however, such machines inevitably entail the cutting of 

 the bine at gathering time, which is directly opposed to the 

 tendency of the age, viz., to pick the crop on the ground 

 and without cutting the bine, there is but little prospect of 

 their coming into general use — an opinion all the more 

 justified by the necessarily more or less imperfect action 

 of machinery for this purpose. 



In gardens where the arrangements are such that the 

 crop can be conveniently gathered without cutting the bine 

 it follows that hand picking is the only method that can 

 be considered at all. In such event the stems will not be 

 cut until late in the autumn, and after the sap has gone 

 down. 



Drying and Bagging. 



To fit them for storage and transport hops require drying. 

 According to the variety, and especially the date of gathering 

 time, hops contain, when freshly picked, 65 to 75 per cent, 

 of moisture, whereas, to be marketable in an air-dry con- 

 dition, they should not contain more than 10 to 14 per cent., 

 since, if rich in water, they are liable to heat during storage 

 and spoil. 



' Pott, Oesterreichisches lamdw. Wochenhlatt, 1878. 

 ^ Zeitschrift fiir das gesammte Brauwesen, 1895. 



