850 



Hop Picking Machine. 



[JAN., 



and the hops they pick are not put on the drying-floors until 

 noon, and sometimes as late as six o'clock. Those picked in 

 the afternoon often do not reach the drying-floors until 

 the next morning. While the hops are packed in sacks or 

 boxes in the meantime, the 75 per cent, of water in the 

 undried hops causes them to sweat, discolour, and damage 

 to such an extent that sulphur is freely used to hide the 

 damage. With the machines this objection is done away 

 with, for the picked hops, instead of being delayed, are 

 landed on the drying-floors two or three minutes from the 

 time the vines are fed into the picking machine. 



"The machine is about 50 ft. long, 15 ft. high, and 10 ft. 

 wide. The vines are hauled from the fields and fed in at 

 one end of the machine, and travel over revolving picking- 

 drums the length of the machine, and then return over a 

 second set of the similar drums, at the end of which the 

 vines are discharged free of hops. The drums are equipped 

 with "V "-shaped fingers, which pick the hops as the vines 

 travel over the drums. These fingers are so made and ad- 

 justed that they pick the hops directly at the end of the hop 

 and without the stem that is usually left on by hand-picking. 

 The finger construction and adjustment is also made so that 

 most of the leaves are left on the vines, but to guarantee 

 clean picking all the hops go through two separating pro- 

 cesses. The upward travelling belt running the full length 

 of the machine receives the hops and leaves from the machine. 

 The hops, being round, roll down into the conveyer that 

 carries them to the second separating process, while the leaves, 

 being light and flat, stick to the belt and are delivered into 

 another conveyer. This part of the mechanism is parti- 

 cularly interesting. 



"The second process is by carrying the hops from the 

 conveyer into which they roll from the belt to and through 

 a perforated cylinder through which the hops drop. Leaves 

 that have not been taken out by the previous process are here 

 automatically picked out." 



The machine is not, it is understood, on the market for * 

 sale at present, and in view of its cost it will probably only 

 be of use to hop-growers on a very large scale in countries 

 where the cost of labour is extremely high. 



