56 
Hop Cultivation. 
Picking commences in early seasons from the 1st to the 8th 
September; in late ones, from the 15th to the 20th. Before it 
begins due provision should be made, and everything got in 
readiness : cokes may be sent for in July and August, and a 
sufficient number of pickers engaged to keep your kilns or oasts 
properly at work. In this you must be governed by the size of 
the hops. Different plans are adopted in picking and measuring ; 
some measure by tally, others by book and cards representing the 
number of each crib or bin. I have found it best to put two cribs 
into the centre of 100 hills; this is called a "house," and the 
cribs remain until the work is finished. The poles will be in 
two heaps at either end of the cribs, and in the proper place for 
stripping and piling. If this is strictly carried out, much trouble 
is saved in piling the poles. When a sufficient number of sacks 
are picked to load one kiln (and this should be done before 
breakfast), they should be taken and put on the oast, and so on 
until all your kilns or oasts are loaded ; and it should be so 
managed that hops enough be picked to reload the kilns at 
night. 
Hop-drying requires great attention, and the slower, in reason, 
they are dried, the better. They should be dried by a current of 
hot air being continuously passed through them, and not by 
combustion. Many say they can dry hops in seven or eight- 
hours ; rely on it, it is better to take twelve, and let your heat 
not exceed 112 to 115 degrees. When the hops are sufficiently 
dried, the fire should be raked or allowed to go down, the hops 
remaining on the kiln until they become soft, which will prevent 
their breaking on being removed to the cooling-room. These 
hops will be fit to be bagged the next day, and with a proper 
staff this should be carried out through the picking. 
Poles are a heavy item in the cost of hop-cultivation, and 
should be carefully husbanded. Their wearing value may be 
doubled by pickling 2J feet at the sharpened end with creosote. 
A tank for the purpose must be erected of size in proportion to 
the plantation. By the application of creosote, soft wood, such 
as that of the willow, &c, becomes hardened, and equal' to ash 
or other more durable sorts. 
The writer has a plantation of 75 acres, and a tank 12 feet 
long by 5 wide, and 3J feet deep. This tank will hold 1000 
best poles put to stand up. The tank must be filled with creosote 
within 8 inches of the top when the poles are in, when water 
fully 2 inches deep must be added to prevent evaporation. The 
tank should boil slowly twentv-four hours, when the poles may be 
removed and the tank refilled. Care must be taken that the 
tank does not boil over, as creosote is most inflammable and may 
take fire. 1 am so satisfied as to the value of creosoting poles 
