manure is required for them. Plenty of 
manure is absolutely essential for a good 
yield. Like other hoed crops, thorough cul¬ 
ture is necessary. 
Planting and Tillage. 
Any land suited to the growing of Indian 
corn is adapted to bops, provided it is well 
drained; clay loam is preferable to any other 
The ground should be prepared for the crop 
as early as it can be worked in the Spring, 
and if it has been plowed the Fall before, all 
the better. It should be plowed and tilled 
until it is thoroughly pulverized and mellow. 
The plowing should be ten or twelve inches 
deep to break up the subsoil to allow the roots 
to penetrate freely. The time to plant in this 
latitude is as early in May as the ground will 
permit. The plants, called sets or runners, 
should be put in rows eight feet apart and in 
hills seven feet distant from each other, 
making about 750 bills to the acre. Four 
bushels of sets will plant an acre. The pieces 
of roots should be cut in two with two sets of 
eyes to each piece and five such pieces should 
be put into one bill. These sets should be 
dropped in the hill and covered like potatoes 
about two inches deep. The sets cost, on an 
average, about $2,$0 per hundred; but they 
range from 50 cents in time of plenty to $10. 
in time of scarcity. The first year after 
planting the crop should be cultivated like 
corn, keeping the ground clean and mellow 
and all grass and weeds out of the hills. 
Before Winter, or belore the ground freezes 
from three to five shovelfuls of fine, rotted 
barnyard manure should be put directly on 
the top of each hill. Three shovelfuls of 
manure are enough to protect and enrich the 
hill if the soil is rich. To get the manure in the 
right condition, it should be piled up in the 
Spring and forked over at least twice during 
the S umraer. This will cause it to rot and at 
the same time to become thoroughly mixed. 
The Second Year 
the ground between the rows, as early as 
possible, should be plowed not so deep as 
before, turning the furrows towards the center 
and away from the hills. Immediately after 
the plowing, the manure should lie raked off 
from the hills, and the earth stirred with a 
spading fork and all of the ground turned 
over which lms been left by the plow. The 
old vines shoul l be cut even wnh the ground 
and removed. The cutting is done with a two¬ 
pronged hook. As soon as the plowing and 
dressing are over, the poles should be set. 
These should be three or lour inches in diame¬ 
ter at the butt w here they should tie sharpened, 
and from 18 to 22 feet long—cedar preferred. 
A large Crow-bar is used tu make the holes for 
Betting. Two poles should be erected in each 
hill, and lhey should be put down in tUe 
ground to a depth sufficient to insure firmness, 
which depth should vary according to the 
looseness or solidity of the soil, and the ex¬ 
posure to winds. They should be put dow n at 
least from 15 to 24 inches. Two vines are 
enough for one pole. The vines should be 
tied to the poles as soon as they aie iong 
enough, winding the vines w ith the sun around 
the pole and keeping them tied till out of 
reach. The land throughout the first part of 
the season should be kept clean and mellow 
by running either a one horse, or a two-horse 
cultivator between the rows as often as is 
necessary, and the hills should be kept clean 
by hand labor and a hoe. About the middle 
of July the ground should be plowed between 
the rows turning the furrows towards the 
bills, and these should be hilled up, but not 
too high as low hills are the best. The object 
of billing is to bring mellow soil around the 
vines but not to bunch up the earth. The 
ground cannot be stirred and cultivated too 
often for hops, as they require a great deal of 
moisture, and mellow ness of soil helps wonder¬ 
fully in furnishing it. 
Picking. 
As soon as the seeds of the hops are hard and 
full of meat the hops are ripe and r >ady to 
pick, especially if the hop itself is full of 
yellow flour which has an oily or gummy 
appearance. This can be determined by 
pinching a hop, when it will feel sticky. In 
ordinary seasons, picking time begins the first 
of (September, but it may be sooner or later. 
Picking is done mostly by women and children 
in this vicinity, at forty cents a box—the 
pickers bourding themselves, but in other 
localities the hands are boarded. Nimble 
fingers pay' best and earn good wages. Bins 
are placed in the hop yard at intervals to 
make the work convenient for the pickers, 
and the poles being pulled out of the ground 
vines and all, are carried to the bins where 
the bops are picked off. The bins hold four 
boxes, and each box, eight forty-quart bushels 
or ten thirty-two-quait bushels. The boxes 
are emptied into large sacks made for the pur¬ 
pose bolding ten or twelve bushels, and carted 
to the dry-house. Picking must always be 
done in dry weather. 
Drying 
must be done as soon as the hops are picked 
—at least every day those picked throughout 
the day must be put to drying in the dry- 
house. Drying is done with stoves and the 
hops are spread on a cloth which rests on slats 
15 to 16 feet above the ground-floor in the 
building where the stove stands. The hops 
must remain on the cloth over the Are until 
thoroughly dried, which takes', from 12 to 20 
hours, according to the depth of hops and the 
attention which is paid to the fires. When 
the hops are dry they should be removed to 
the store-room where tbey are kept until they 
are baled. The size of the dry-house, or kiln, 
depends on the amouut of hops to be dried: 
one 22 feet square will do for a yard from four 
to eight acres in extent, with a store-room 
connecting and attached large enough to con¬ 
tain the hops. 
Baling, Etc. 
The hops may be baled as soon as tbey are 
thoroughly cold, and a foggy or wet time is 
best for the work as the hops will pack better 
in such weather. The hops are baled by put¬ 
ting them in sacks of hop cloth, which ismade 
expressly for the purpose, the bales bolding 
about 200 pounds as nearly as may be, there 
being no exact w eight required for the size of 
the bales. The pressing into the bales, which 
are made as solid as possible, may be done by 
i n old-fashioned screw press, or by one of the 
patent presses w hich do the work much faster. 
Hops are usually sold in the Autumn to specu- 
]ators who visit the hop districts and compete 
witheach other and who re-sell to the brewers. 
There is a patent on, or at least patent claims 
are made to, a mode of staking the vines other 
than by the entire use of poles. One stake is 
sot in a hill and wires stretch each w ay high 
enough to be out of the way of the horses in 
working. This system is not in such general 
use as poles alone. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
HOP CULTURE. 
Hop culture in central New York has be¬ 
come a leading industry especially in Madison, 
Oneida and Otsego Counties. Hops are a very 
hardy crop to raise i f properly taken care of; 
yet, like all other crops, to make them a suc¬ 
cess requires a great deal of labor with good 
judgment as to when to apply it. When good 
cure hus been given to the j T ards, and sales 
have been made at the proper time for selling 
—giving a limit of 40 days after harvesting— 
I cannot recall a case in which hop growing has 
not been a success to the grower. Taking ten 
years for a test, the average price of hops for 
the period will double the cash value of any 
other crop that can be produced on the same 
soil with the same amouut of labor; yet there 
bn\e been, perhaps, more failures in hop cul¬ 
ture than in almost any other branch of busi¬ 
ness where the same amount of capital is 
required. Why is this? Why does one man 
succeed and his neighbornot? In nearly every 
case failure can be traced to lack of judgment 
attention and perseverance. 
It is not an easy matter to be successful in 
hop culture. The business requires a great 
deal of study as well as a small capital. First 
the grower must select the roots of some vari¬ 
ety which will yield well and will not mold, 
for mold in hops injures their value very 
much. A dry, light soil of yellowish loam 
usually produces the best bops, Three bushels 
of roots are needed to set one acre, marking 
and setting the hills 7% feet by 7% feet, mak¬ 
ing about 750 hills, for there must be room for 
turning with a horse at each end of tbe row. 
Hops do not produce the first year of setting, 
so corn or potatoes are planted on the ground, 
leaving out whichever is planted whore the 
hills of hops are, so as to give the hops a fair 
chance. Cultivate the same as for corn, hoe¬ 
ing tbe hops when the other crop is hoed, so 
that they' may not be smothered by weeds. In 
the Fall there should be at least two or three 
good shovelfuls of manure put on every hill, 
or some equivalent fertilizer, for this crop 
requires a rich soil. In the Spring, as soon as 
the ground is fit to work, the hills should be 
lightened up with a grub-hoe, care being taken 
not to loosen the bed roots; they do not pro¬ 
duce auy roots for setting the first year. Then 
the poles should bo ready to be set; they should 
'be eighteen or twenty feet and sharpened at 
the bottom. A bar is used for making the 
holes for setting the poles. There are various 
ways of poling a yard; the best is to put two 
poles to a hill, about a foot apart, and so that 
they may “row” with each other. Then the 
yard should be plowed, four furrows between 
each row both ways, turning the furrows 
from the hills so as to keep the ground light and 
warm. Ab soon as the vines get to be about 
two feet long they should be tied to the poles 
very loosely bo they may grow freely. In the 
tying of the vine much care must bB taken to 
select good beads that have not been eaten 
by insects. Two vines to each pole are suffi¬ 
cient. Tbe tying is repeated until the vine 
reaches the top of the pole. It is not neces¬ 
sary to tie all of the vines after the first 
tying—only these that do not cling to the 
pole. 
Hops should be cultivated often all through I 
the season to keep the weeds from making 
their appearance and to keep the ground 
light. They should be “sprouted” after tbey 
reach the bight, of four or five feet, that is, 
all of the vines should be cut off except four 
or five at each bill, which should be tied to 
the poles after sprouting; then hoe. About 
three weeks after hoeing the first time, hilling 
should commence. It is well to hoe once 
after hilling to prevent weeds from growing, 
yet I have seen yards where tbe grass and 
weeds were mown before harvesling instead 
of cultivating and hoeing. 1 will admit that 
two crops can be harvested in this way; but 
I will not admit there is any profit in the 
plan. About the first of September the har¬ 
vesting commences. Then is the lively time 
with tbe hop growers. It requires about 
three bands to each acre of hops to harvest 
them. The greater part of the help can be 
women, as they can pick the hops from the 
vines as fast as men; but it requires a good 
man to pull tbe poles. Tbe hops are picked 
into boxes bolding about eight bushels each, 
weighing about 60 pounds when green and 13 
when dried. The price for picking is from 
30 to 35 cents per box. The drying requires 
the most skill of any part of the business. 
A man must have experience to dry them so 
as to make a first-class hop for the market. 
Should any one who has had no experience 
wish to go into the business, it would be well 
for him to spend about two weeks in harvest 
time, in a hop yard. The actual cost for 
tending one acre at one dollar a day and board 
would be about $20, and to harvest them it 
costs about seven cents per pound. "With good 
culture and on a good soil adapted for bops, 
1,500 pouuds per acre can be raised. About 
tbe average price per pound for tbe past ten 
years has tieen 20cents, which amounts to $300 
per acre. Tending and harvesting cost $125 
and the total outlay per acre, including the 
use of ground and of poles, amounts to about 
$175. 
♦ • ♦ 
EXPERIENCE IN HOP GROWING. 
With 15 years’ experience in growing hops, 
I have come to the conclusion that, for tbe 
capital invested, there is as much profit in 
grow ing hops as in auy other brunch of gen¬ 
eral farming, or more. One very important 
item connected with hop growing is, that in 
five months from the first day’s work done 
in the hop yard the crop may bo sold and 
tbe proceeds in our pockets. I would not, 
however, advise any of my frieuds to engage 
in hop growing. No faint-heurted farmer 
should go into this business. It requires gen¬ 
uine pluck to grow bops. “Stick to it” is 
the idea, to make it pay. There are but 
fetv farmers calculated to make hop growing 
a very great success. 
Hop roots intended for planting should be 
taken out in the Spring as soon as possible, 
before the roots swell or sprout. This is very 
important. In cutting the roots for planting 
we leave two sets of eyes on each piece cut. 
The roots should be cut very soon after being 
taken from the hills, as they are liable to 
sprout or get injured in one w'ay or another. 
If the ground is not ready for planting; the 
roots should be put in as cool a place as possi¬ 
ble, to prevent too much sprouting. I some¬ 
times spread them on grass sward and cover 
thorn thickly with straw. Generally we plant 
on green-sward, spi eading coarse or long ma¬ 
nure as the case may be, and turn it under the 
same as for corn. My soil is a gravelly loam 
—wbat is knowu as river table land. 1 plow 
about ten inches deep; mark both ways, leav¬ 
ing the ground in squares of eight feet. I use 
a middle tooth also; then the field is fully 
marked ready fof potatoes, which I plant the 
same time I plant the hops, and corn is put in 
some three or four weeks later. As soon as I 
finish planting corn 1 ruu the cultivator both 
ways to keep the ground light and free from 
gmss. To avoid “miss” hills and insure a 
strong, vigorous growth and a full crop the 
first year, early planting is very important. 
My heaviest yields of hops have been from 
my first year’s picking. 1 plant after the bop 
bar; one man can make the holes as fast us 
three or four can set the roots, each planter 
being supplied with a kind of paddle and a 
pail of wet hop roots covered with a wet 
woolen cloth. We fill the bottom of the bar- 
hole and press the dirt somewhat that it may 
not sink away from the roots during heavy 
rains. Three pieces are put in a hill, and all 
are set the right end up with the tops flaring 
out somewhat and covered about two inches 
deep. I set 5,350 hills as above described, and 
had only four “miss” hills tbe next Spring. 
Most of our yards are destroyed by the hop 
grub. I have known very fine yards to be 
ruined in three years. After tbe vines get up 
some two or three feet many of them are 
punctured just under thesurfaceof the ground 
in from one to three places in a row crosswise 
of the vine—mere pin points. In a short time 
a rnmute grub puts in an appearance and at 
once commences its work of destruction. I 
have used salt, lime and ashea^with no very 
satisfactory results. I have sometimes taken 
the pests out with sticks, but this is an endless 
job. Later on in my hop growing I gave 
them a different kind of treatment. Tbey sel¬ 
dom work more than an inch or two uuder 
ground, and early, while they are small and 
weak, I hill up my hops from 12 to 16 inches, 
and this seems to put the grubs so far below 
tbe working or breathing point that they do 
but little injury to the vines afterwards. Last 
Fall I plowed up a yard that had been treated 
as above stated for ten years, und the roots 
appeared to be as free from grubs as they 
were the first year or two. The Ited Canada 
Hop is highly spoken of by prominent grow¬ 
ers. In planting hops too many roots are fre¬ 
quently put in a hill, and where there are so 
many small roots and vines the hills are 
weak. The practice prevents tbe vines from 
getting a strong growth for the first year’s 
crop. e. w. c. 
Greene, Chenango Co., N. Y. 
NOTES ON HOP RAISING. 
As it is the second year after planting a hop 
yard before any revenue can be derived from 
it, and quite a large outlay is required to be¬ 
gin the business, it should be entered upon de¬ 
liberately and with the view to following the 
business a term of years; otherwise the pro¬ 
ducer will be almost sure to lose both time and 
money. A farmer should possess sturdy in¬ 
dependence of mind, and not get a mania for 
a kind of business for which he is not fitted 
just because bis neighbors are all going in to 
it; often to do what others do not do, pays 
best. 
Hop raising, unless in a place where but lit¬ 
tle else can be done, is more of a gambling 
crop than any other, because the profits may 
be very large, or they may with the same ex¬ 
pense and labor be very sin ill, or less than 
nothing. Almost every other crop pays 
something always; hops are not to be depend¬ 
ed on in that respect. One serious drawback 
to the business is wliat one must endure from 
hop pickers. The hop crop must be gathered 
when ripe within about two weeks’ time, and 
where there are many yards there must he 
large gatherings of pickers, and for some un¬ 
explained reason those who pick hops seem to 
think that good manners and everything else 
of thal sort must be left at home. Of course, 
there is no rule without exceptions, but the 
decorously behaved are a small minority. 
Youths of both sexes, well brought up aud or¬ 
dinarily well behaved, become often in a bop 
yard rude aud Coarse, aud if the poor head of 
the house ventures on a remonstrance they 
either quit or threaten to, or become more of¬ 
fensive in their boisterous ways. The annoy¬ 
ances connected with a business are to be taken 
into account as well as its profits. 
Southern Wisconsin. A Volunteer. 
-- *■ ■—»- 
WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HOPS. 
I have grown hops quite extensively, hav¬ 
ing yards of from 20 to 25 acres. In the 
Spring, as soon as the frost is out of the yards, 
I take the roots, or “grubs.” as they are 
called, from the hills; that is, those that are 
not needed to grow the present vines. Those 
roots, or “grubs,” are used as seed for new 
yards. Tho “ grub,” or root, is cut into pieces 
with four eyes iu each. The method of put¬ 
ting them iu the ground is a matter of choice 
with tbe hop grower. Some make holes with a 
pointed instrument and put them in vertical¬ 
ly; but 1 plant them as I do corn, putting 
three pieces in a hill and two inches of soil 
over them. 
As I have now disposed of my roots, I will 
return to the yard for further cultivation. 
The poles being set, I commence plowing be¬ 
tween the hills, pulverizing the soil as fine as 
I can. When the vines are large enough I go 
through the ard yund tie them to the poles. 
The tying is somewhat tedious, requiring con¬ 
stant care until they reach the tops of the 
poles. About tbe 1st of June I put cultivators 
in the yards, giving them a thorough cultiva- 
vation. Then I hoe them as I do corn. About 
tho 1st of July I plow them again, this time 
turning the soil towards the bill. Then I hill 
them, making quite large hills. About July 
15 they begin to blossom, and 45 days from 
blossoming they will be ripe and fit to pick, 
i I commence picking the first of September. 
It takes about 18 days to secure the crop. Af¬ 
ter I have harvested the hops I press them iu 
bales of 200 pounds each, and then sell them 
for all I can get. The hop has more enemies, 
as regards insects, than any other crop I 
know of. J. l. w, 
Oneida, Madison Co., N. Y. 
Failure with Hops.— One of our friends 
at our request gives his hop experience us fol¬ 
lows: “My first crop of hops was very good; 
the second rusted aud was not very good, and 
the third blighted and was a perfect fail¬ 
ure. That finished my experience in the hop 
business. E. T. Prentice.” 
