T9IO.] 



Hop Picking Machine. 



849 



(Journal, September, 1908, p. 457), bacterial disease of 

 potatoes, heart-rot of sugar beet, Pseudomonas campestris, 

 mildew of the oak, and a disease resembling pear blight, 

 which had not previously been observed. 



A machine for picking hops has recently been patented 

 in America by Mr. E. C. Horst, and is now in use on the 

 extensive hop plantations on the 

 A Hop Picking Machine Pacific Coast owned by the E. Clemens 

 Horst Company. The hop farms of 

 this company are stated to cover 8,000 acres, and during 

 picking time the number of hands employed approaches 

 10,000. The difficulty of obtaining the necessary amount of 

 labour just when required has made the employment of 

 machinery practically a necessity, but until the present 

 machine was introduced none of the various inventions which 

 have been proposed from time to time had proved of any 

 practical value. 



According to a statement by the inventor, one of these 

 machines can do the work of 450 hand-pickers. With two 

 men it will pick 100 lb. of green hops per minute, or 6,000 lb. 

 per hour, and picks them absolutely clean and much better 

 than can be done by hand labour. Mr. Horst goes on to 

 describe the advantages of the machine as follows: — u The 

 worry on account of scarcity of labour is eliminated, and the 

 consumer is assured of receiving hops vastly superior in 

 quality over hand-picked hops, for the reason that the grower 

 can pick his hops in any part of the field as they may become 

 ripe and just right for picking. With hand-pickers he is com- 

 pelled to pick his fields straight through as they are. The result 

 is that some of the hops are unripe, while others are ripe 

 and over-ripe, and as they are all mixed in together and dried 

 on the same drying-floor, you can readily understand why 

 hand-picked hops are not of uniform quality. 



" Another serious objection to hand-picking is the great 

 damage that results to hand-picked hops from lying in 

 boxes or sacks from six to twelve hours until the drying 

 begins. 



"Pickers usually begin work at five o'clock in the morning, 



