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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
A NEW METHOD OE HOP GEOWING. 
The expense of furnishing poles for a hop yard 
is a formidable obstacle to the cultivation of this 
crop. The cost is not far from two hundred dol¬ 
lars per acre, a sum so large as to deter many 
small farmers from entering upon the business. 
The poles, too, being exposed to the weather, de¬ 
cay rapidly, and have to be renewed after a few 
years. 
To economise in this outlay, the hop growers in 
some parts of the country are turning their atten¬ 
tion to wire and cord as a substitute for poles. 
They lay off the plantation in the form of a par- 
alelogram, or square. On the east and west 
sides they put up a row of substantial poles, eight 
or ten inches through at the butt, at a distance of 
seven feet from each other. These poles are 
about the size of those used for telegraphs, and 
are about fifteen feet high. Between the outside 
poles are east and west rows of smaller poles, at 
distances of forty-nine feet from each other, for 
the purpose of holding up the suspended wires. 
The rows of small poles stand seven feet apart. 
A wire is now run from the east to the west side 
of the field, on the top of these small poles. The 
wire is about the size of that commonly used for 
the telegraph. This gives forty-nine feet of wire 
between each two small poles, making room for 
seven hills of hops. From this wire a small cord 
is suspended about five feet, sufficiently strong 
to hold the hops, and to last several years. From 
the end of this cord a still smaller one runs down 
to the ground, and is there fastened. Around this 
the hop vine is trained, and it is said to adhere 
with as much tenacity as to a pole. In the Fall, 
when the hops are ready for harvest, the small cord 
is cut, and the hops are picked in the usual manner. 
The following advantages are claimed for this 
method : There is a great saving of expense in 
the poles. One large pole does the work of sev¬ 
en. A great deal of labor is saved in handling 
poles at the time of harvest, and in storing them 
for Winter. The taking up of the poles at the 
time of picking, and the replacing them again in 
the Spring, forms a large item in the expense of 
hop growing. By the new method, a string is 
cut, and the hill of hops is ready for picking. A 
string is tied, and the hill of hops is ready for 
growing in the Spring. The wire is much more 
permanent than the poles, and the expense is 
much less. The cost of cord for the vines is tri¬ 
fling. 
Those who have tried the new method are 
much pleased with the results, but it is not yet 
generally introduced. Those who have poles 
upon their hands for eight or ten acres of hops, 
will only introduce it as their stock of poles is re¬ 
duced by decay. 
FISH CULTURE IN CONNECTICUT. 
We are informed that a company have pur¬ 
chased the fishing rights in Saltonstal Lake, with 
the intention of stocking it with salmon and 
other fish, by means of artificial propagation. 
One of the parties has successfully practised 
the art in Germany. This lake is a beautiful 
sheet of water, three or four miles east of New- 
Haven, and is well adapted to the experiment. 
It was a favorite resort of the late Prof. Norton, 
with whom we have enjoyed some pleasant 
“ pickerel catchings, at Saltonstal.” During the 
Winter preceding his death, we had our last ex¬ 
cursion together on the 2nd of January. The 
mercury stood at 3° beiow zero all day, and yet 
between 11 A. M. and 3 P. M., we (two) caught, 
with hooks and lines through the ice, 71 pickerel, 
weighing 67 pounds.—Mem.' No fingers, toes or 
noses frost-bitten.—We wish the new fishing 
company as good luck, and more so. 
WHITE CEDAR AND ARBOR VIM. 
In many parts of the country these trees are 
regarded as identical;—the first name being the 
common and popular designation, and the latter 
being the term used by botanists and amateurs to 
designate the same thing. But this is a mistake 
which we wish to correct. The White Cedar, 
(Cupressus thyoides,) is less common than the 
Arbor Vitae, and grows in wet, cold, swampy sit¬ 
uations. It is very common in New England, 
with a more delicate and flexible foliage than the 
Arbor Vitae, in this respect resembling the Red 
Cedar somewhat, and the various Junipers, na¬ 
tive and foreign. It often attains the hight of 60 
and 70 feet, and when growing in a wild unbro¬ 
ken swamp, it forms a dense and almost impene¬ 
trable mass of foliage. The wood is valuable for 
timber, and is much used for sleepers in railway 
tracks, for fencing, and in making shingles. The 
soil most congenial for this tree is, low swampy 
land, useless for tillage unless thoroughly drained. 
Such land would become valuable if planted large¬ 
ly with White Cedar. 
The American Arbor Vita;, (Thujaoccidcntalis,) 
is an entirely different tree from the former. It 
is rarely seen in a wild state in Massachusetts, 
where the white Cedar abounds, but is found in 
Canada, New Brunswick, Maine, and in nearly all 
the Northern States. It is a smaller tree than 
the White Cedar, seldom reaching more than a 
foot in diameter, or more than 40 or 50 feet in 
hight. The side branches are short, generally 
rising from the trunk at an acute angle, and form¬ 
ing a narrow and symmetrical spire. Very fine 
specimens of this tree may be seen on the banks 
of the Hudson, between Albany and Newburg. 
Sometimes, especially in forests, where the tree 
has become old, the branches droop quite grace¬ 
fully. The great peculiarity in the foliage 
of the Arbor Vita; is, the arrangement of 
it leaves in a flat, fan-like form. Says Downing : 
“ Its foliage is composed of a great number of 
scales, imbricated, or over laying each other, 
which gives the whole a compressed appearance.” 
In the hands of a skillful gardener, it is one of 
the most useful trees for ornamental planting. 
Hardy as an oak, and as easily transplanted al¬ 
most as a willow, it can be used for screens to 
divide pleasure grounds, or as barriers to break 
off cold winds from gardens and fruit grounds, or 
as a lawn tree for the most elegant establishment. 
Some specimens need no pruning to make them 
beautiful pyramids, and masses of lively green. 
Others require the knife or shears, and may be 
molded into any shape that fancy can dictate. 
REMEDY FOR DAMP WALLS. 
On all sides we meet with the complaint that 
stone and brick buildings are damp, and the air 
within them unwholesome. This is the case, es¬ 
pecially where the soil on which such walls rest 
is wet, or where the buildings are surrounded by 
shrubbery and trees. To meet this difficulty, it 
is sometimes suggested that the cellar floors 
should be covered with a cement of water lime, 
laid over a coating of coarse gravel ; and that the 
cellar should be lathed and plastered overhead. 
This we think a good suggestion, having tried it 
several years in our own dwelling with excel¬ 
lent results. 
It has also been proposed that the sides and top 
of the foundation walls should be cemented, so as 
to prevent the absorption of moisture from the 
earth below into the walls of the superstructure. 
We doubt whether this would remedy the diffi¬ 
culty. Instead of trying to make the walls im¬ 
pervious to water, it would be better to put some 
kind of non-conductor between the walls and the 
occupied apartments. The confined air between 
the plastered ceiling of the cellar, just referred 
to, and the floor of the lower story, is 
such a non-conductor, and preserves the lower 
rooms from the hurtful dampness rising from the 
cellar. Place, then, a similar non-conductor be¬ 
tween the side walls of each apartment and the 
room itself. This can be done either by making 
the walls hollow, or by “ furring off” an inch or 
two on the inner side of the wall. One inch of 
confined air, in such a situation, will keep any 
room warm and dry. 
We hope to see the long-prevailing fashion of 
cheap wooden buildings gradually give way, be¬ 
fore the English custom of erecting durable struc¬ 
tures of brick and stone. And, for this reason, 
we take every opportunity to remove prejudices 
against such structures. 
FLOWING CRANBERRIES. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist . 
The question is frequently asked, if flowing the 
Cranberry is beneficial in any other way than to 
guard against frost. In my experience, I am sat¬ 
isfied this plant is benefited in four ways by 
overflowing. 
First. To protect the vines from severe cold in 
Winter. For this purpose they should be covered 
with water one foot or more above the tops of 
the plants. I have had my experimental plants 
on upland, (which could not be flooded,) cut down 
to the roots two Winters out of six. They 
sprouted out again, and produced some fruit, but 
not half as much as usual. 
Secondly. To guard against late frosts in 
Spring, the plants should be kept well covered 
until the fore part of May ; then gradually draw 
off the water, leaving an inch or two under the 
plants as long as there is danger of frost. The 
Cranberry always grows on the new sprout, and I 
have seen not only the buds but the new shoots 
entirely cut offby frost the first day of June. With 
this water protection during the Winter, and a par¬ 
tial flow until all danger of frosts are over in the 
Spring, the vines should uniformly bloom, and 
set a full crop every year, unless the plants are 
injured by gathering the crop in the Fall. The 
picking should be done by hand, as raking thrifty 
plants will so disarrange them that they cannot 
yield a full crop for one or two years after such 
rough usage. 
Third. To kill out grass. Some portions of my 
meadow was so over-run with rush and other 
wild grasses three years ago, as to prevent their 
producing fruit, but by flowing and keeping the 
water on until the first of June, the grass has 
been so killed out, that it now presents little or 
no obstacle to the growth of the plant, or the pro¬ 
duction of fruit, and the grass will undoubtedly all 
disappear in a few years by the same treatment. 
Fourth. To prevent the destruction of the fruit 
by the worm. There is in this vicinity an insect 
similar to the apple worm,that attacks the early set¬ 
ting fruit when it is about half or two-thirds grown, 
destroying the berry by eating it through. It has 
troubled me very little since I began to flow my 
meadow. Last year I observed some plants on 
the edge of the upland, just above high water 
mark, that set very full of fruit, but it was nearly 
all destroyed by the worm, while plants that were 
paitially flooded, within one foot of them, were 
scarcely attacked at all, and on the main body ol 
my meadow I hardly saw a worm-eaten berry. 
E. Bagley. 
Usquepaug, II. I., Aug. 3, 1857. 
