74: 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Marcs, 
made about three feet Ion?, with a partition through the 
middle, and two of these double boxes, with a platform 
three feet square between them, make a "set" for four 
pickers. Tliey are of half-inch basswood, with handles 
at each end. A man (or a girl) called a "box-tender," 
■who has a large basket, knife, and light stool, pulls off 
the ai-ms from the vines, (they break out easily by a 
pull towards the root of the vine,) and with the knife 
cuts off tlie end of the main vine, which hangs down. 
set" for four pickers. 
As fast as he fills his basket, he empties it on the plat- 
form, thus leaving the main vine with most of its foliage 
entire, and preventing any bleeding. 
When the hops are good, and the strings not more than 
seven feet high, one man can tend two sets of pickers, 
eight boxes, as easy as he can one where they are nine 
feet high. The man who tends box should never be 
required to sack the hops. Broken arms are to be thrown 
away when the liops on them have turned brown : for if 
put in, they will injure the sale of all. A man who has 
the reputation of picking his hops clean, and putting them 
up nicely, will get a little extra price for them, and find 
quicker sale when hops are low. The difference between 
" Fancy" hops and " Common sorts'' is always enough to 
pay the whole cost of raising the crop. Only the best 
hops have the advantage of a foreign market. The price 
for picking varies from 20 to 50 cents per box. ^Owners 
usually board the pickers, and if they are treated well, he 
will find it all the easier to engage them another year. 
Drying the Hops. — The Kiln should be proportioned 
to the amount of hops to be dried. It is usually divided 
into four rooms. The stove room, where fire is made, 
should be not less than 14 feet high, and 16 or 18 feet is 
better, with stone or brick walls and no floor ; if the walls 
are of wood, they must be plastered to the top of the 
room. At the bottom of the walls there should be six 
air holes, one by three feet, with doors to close them tight 
w hen necessary, and if the kiln is very large there must be 
more than six. The stoves, usually two, are large enough 
to luke in three-feet wood, with grate bars at the bottom, 
and yery large doors ; the pipes aie carried once or twice 
across the room, as near the level of the top of the stove 
as possible, and then go into a chimney on the outside 
of the building. Great care must be taken not to have 
the pipes touch the wood-work, as it is kept so hot for a 
long time, as to set fire to any wood work near it. The 
pipe is often run several feet from the building and turned 
up like the stnoke-stack of a steam boiler, to make a good 
draft. There is a door from the stove room into the baling 
room, with a light of glass, so that the man who attends 
the drying may see the state of the fires witnout going in, 
and on the inside of the glass is a Thermometer to show 
the degree of heat at a glance. 
The drying room is over the stove room ; usually there 
are joists laid across the top of th« stove room, and 
■wooden slats, one inch by two, are laid on them on edge, 
two and a half inches apart. On this there is laid a car- 
pet—usually made of flax or hemp with small threads, 
twisted hard and wooven loosely, so that the spaces be- 
tween them areabout l-16of an inch or more, allowing air 
to pass through it freely. It should never be of cotton. 
The best kiln I have ever seen. Is one which has a mov- 
able carpet, invented by Edward France. Wires, like 
telegraph wires, put three or four inches apart, are used 
instead of slats, and no joists are used, but the wires are 
stretched tight by a nut on tlie end. The hops are put 
on it from a movable walk ; a plank 2^i feet above the 
carpet, supported from the rafters by wire suspension 
rods, and when the hops are on, the plank is turned on 
edge. When the hops are dry, the carpet is rolled off by 
a shaft In the store room, so that all the hops are taken 
off in less than five minutes, and the carpet put back 
ready for a new charge, witliout losing the heat or let- 
ting the fires go down. No sweeping is needed with this 
kiln, nor does any one step on the carpet. 
The roof should be carried up very high, so as to have 
the ventilator as high as possible, and make a belter draft 
to the kiln. This is made with a cowl which turns by 
the wind, or a slat ventilator is used, arranged so as to 
keep out the rain, while the air can pass up freely. 
The store room is next the drying room, but the floor is 
from three to eight feet lower than the carpet, so as to 
make plenty of room to store hops in bulk until they are 
ready to press. It should have but one window, which 
should have a shutter to keep the room dark, while the 
hops are in it. They will turn brown if exposed to 
light. Have boards to set up, and make the end of the 
»torc room farthest from the drying room into one or two 
brge bins, so that any damaged hops can be kept separate, 
Under the store room is the baling room ; it has a tight 
floor, and is used to bale the hops, store the hop press, 
together with any tools not in use in the yard. 
At first picking, put on the hops not more than twelve 
inches deep, and start the fires. Use only dry wood, as 
more heat can be had from dry than green wood, and 
where the stoves are large, the fires last better if large 
wood is used. Open all the air holes, so there will be a 
good draft through the hops. When the fire is first made, 
the steam passes off from the hops very fast. Keep the 
temperature as regular as possible. About 180° or as near 
that as may be, with as good a current of air as you can 
get, will dry them rapidly. After making the second fire, 
take a pan of coals from the stove, and put on a quantity 
of sulphur. If the hops are nice and free firom rust or 
mould, one pound is enough for bleaching a kiln, but 
when very rusty, from two to five pounds are sometimes 
used. Put the pan in the centre of the room, and shut 
the door— the fire must be well made, for it cannot be 
mended for half an hour. When half the stems will 
break on bending them, the hops are dry enough. This 
will be ii^rom eight to ten hours. 
In using the common kiln, the doors are thrown open, 
the fire goes down, and the kiln is cooled for two hours, 
so that a man can go in to shovel off the hops, which he 
cannot do while it is hot. With a rake, shovel and broom 
he throws the hops off upon the cooling floor of the store 
room, and sweeps the carpet off clean. He must 
wear shoes without nails, or he will tear the carpet. 
Much of the flour, or LupuUn, always falls through into 
the stove-room— sometimes two or three pounds from 
each kiln full. What falls on the stoves and pipe must 
be brushed off or it will smoke the next charge. With 
the France kiln there is no sweeping ; the hops are 
taken off when first dry, no flour falls through and the 
hops are left whole ; the next charge of hops Js put o», 
and the heai is mostly saved, the fires nv'i being allowed 
to go down at all. Two men have charge of the drying, 
w^here the kiln is run all the time, each working half the 
time. The hops should be left on the cooling floor, where 
they are thrown, until the next charge is nearly done; they 
are then shoved back a little, to make room for more, 
and so on until they get into the bins at the end of the 
room, two or three charges being in this ■way kept 
spread as much as possible all the time. 
When the hops have been neglected by the dryer going 
to sleep, or any other cause, they become too dry, which 
is known by their feeling harsh, and most of the stems 
snapping. Shut the air holes, put a quart or a little 
more of salt upon a pan of coals in the stove room, and 
let the charge stand a short time— this will toughen them. 
It is best to have pickers enough to keep the kiln run- 
ning all the time. Be careful to get hops dry enough. 
Baling and Pressing.— The baling should be done in 
from four to six weeks; we usually take a rainy time 
when nothing else can be done, as then hops handle best. 
The Harris Press is the best I have ever seen for bal- 
ing hops—it is made by Seneca Gifford, WatervUle, 
Oneida Co.. New York. It Is cheap and good— costing 
now but fifty dollars. Baling cloth is made on purpose 
for hops. A good quality should weigh about one and 
one half pounds per yard. Nevet use Gunny-cloth nor 
Burlaps. Twine for sewing should be small, strong and 
free from bunches. so as to sew easily; the needles used are 
common bent sail needles. A dozen pointed iron skewers 
are wanted to hold the cloth while sewing— use tallow 
instead of wax upon the thread, so that it ■will slip easily. 
Cut the sacking for the bottom piece one yard longer 
than the bottom of the press, and the upper one six inches 
shorter ; save one piece of each kind until the last bale, 
for a measure, so as lo have them all uniform. When a 
nice hop is grown, it should be kept as whole as possible. 
Have side boards to fit in from the top of the press to a 
trap door in the floor of the store room, and a wooden 
box there of the same size to shovel them into. The 
side boards to come out when the hops are below them. 
Take care to fill the comers of the bale full, so as to make 
a square handsome package. Bales are all the same size, 
weighing from 150 to 240 pounds, according to the de- 
gree they are pressed and how well seeded they are. 
The baled hops, If kept stored long, must be in a 
dry room set on end, and a few inches apart, so that 
the air can circulate between them. 
Selling. — When hops are high, almost any will sell, 
but when they are low only the best sell readily. At two 
years old they are worth but half price, and are worthless 
at four or five years. Always sell the first rear. 
By keeping the run of the market, both in this country 
and Europe, the grower can form an intelligent opinion 
of what the price should be. It varies from eight cents, 
at the lowest, up to fifty or sixty cents, as at present, for 
very fine qualities, but the average for the last 40 years 
has been IT to 13 cents. The cost of raising in the man- 
ner described Is from 4 to 6 cents per pound. The 
average crop all through the country is near 1000 pounds 
per acre (when the work is well done), but I have seen 
2500 pounds per acre raised on a large yard. Oa two 
large yards in Morris, Otsego Co., N. Y., the average for ' 
four years past has been 1700 on one, and 1600 on the 
other, both being trained on strings. 
Insects.— For two years past, the hop crop has been 
very much injured, even ruined in some places, in New 
York, by th»Hop Louse. This comes early in July, and 
unless prevented, it increases until it ruins the crop. 
I insert from Harris' "Insects Injurious to Vegetation" 
a part of the description :—•* The winged plant lice pro- 
vide for a succession of their race by stocking the plant 
with eggs in the autumn ; these are hatched In due time 
in the spring, and the young lice Immediately begin to 
pump up sap from the tender leaves and shoots, Increase 
in size and in short time come to maturity; in this state 
it is found that the brood without a single exception are 
females, which are wingless, but are in a condition to 
continue their kind Immediately. Their young however 
are not hatched from eggs, but are produced alive ; and 
each female may be the mother of 15 or 20 young lice in 
a single day. The plant lice of this second generation 
are also wingless females, which grow up and have their 
young in due season — and thus brood after brood is pro- 
duced even to the seventh generation or more without 
the appearance or intervention of a single male through 
the whole season. This extraordinary kind of pro- 
pagation ends in the autumn with the birth of a brood of 
males and females, which in due time acquire wings and 
pair. Eggs are then laid by the females and with the 
death of these winged individuals, which soon follows, 
the species becomes extinct for the season." 
The bark of poles, and any old rubbish, vines etc.. in 
the hop yard, will be covered with the eggs of these plant 
lice. When sawed stakes are used and coated with gas 
tar, not an egg will be laid on them. The old vines should 
always be burned up in the fall. 
The enemies of the louse are the Lady bug (Coccinella) 
while in the larva slate. It Is a small fattened grub, of 
a bluish color, usually spotted with red or yellow, and 
has six legs near the fore p»rt of the body ; "they are 
hatched from yellow eggs laid among the lice in clus- 
ters". Another Is the grub of a *' golden-eyed lace winged 
fly" ; "it is a long slender grub with a pair of large, 
curved, sharp teeth". Harris says It will kill one louse a 
minute— "its eggs are on short hairs among the lice". 
" Small two winged flies, black, with yellow bands, lay 
their eggs among the lice— they make maggots which 
destroy large numbers." 
By taking care to save what are found of these. I think 
the lice will be kept down so as not to ruin yards as Is 
done In tome cases now. Every hop grower should have 
Harris' book. The insects which prey on his crops are de- 
scribed there,wilh some hints towards their exteiminatlon. 
Ants should be kept out of the yard as much as pos- 
sible ; they are said to take care of the lice, while they 
are few, and transport them to vines where there are 
none. Drive away by coal oil or gas tar put on their hills. 
After the first year, Lady-bugs and other enemies of the lice 
increase so much as to save the yard from much damage. 
There are several Caterpillars which live on the hop 
vines, but I have never seen them plenty enough to do 
much damage, except the one which lives In the ground 
and eats the roots and the vine near the surface. 
If the grower examines the hop yard closely, he will 
soon learn to tell his enemies from his friends. Crows 
and other birds arc of great use in eating beetles and 
grubs, and snakes also devour large numbers of them. 
Last spring, I found more than half the hills In our yard 
dug into by skunks, searching for the grubs, and where 
they had been I could find no grubs. The little harm 
they do in sucking eggs, is far more than made up by their 
work. A family of skunks will do as much towards tak- 
ing out grubs, if you will protect them from the dogs, as 
a man can do. They work in the night. 
Bam swallows were on our yard last summer all the 
time and appeared to live there, going only from the 
bam to the yard, where they got their whole living. 
Mandrino. — Every fall the yard should have two fork- 
fuls of coarse manure on top of the hills, partly as a pro- 
tection to the vine, and from the first to the middle of July 
it should have as much, or, if the ground is poor, more 
well rotted fine manure, which has been fermented 
enough to kill any seeds which were in it. This should 
be put on, and covered immediately with an inch or two 
of dirt— ashes are oflen mixed with the manure, but I 
prefer using them with lime on the surface of the ground. 
I have seen plaster used with good effect. Old bones are 
good to bury In the yard, where any amount of them can 
be had. So also are the sweepings of blacksmilhs* shops. 
In this country hops are now mostly raised in Central 
New York, some in New England, and a few In the 
Western States. I have seen them growing wild in 
Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas fully as fine as the cultivated 
ones; they grow wild on all creek bottoms, where the 
soil is not overflowed In the winter, and where they are 
not killed by fire, producing best in those bottoms formed 
by the wash of limestone hills. The few yards In Iowa and 
Wisconsin produce large crops of the best quality of hops. 
