THE CULTIVATOR. 
17 
disproportion^ to the size of tlie limbs as to prevent the animal from 
moving with sufficient facility. In animals, where activity is re¬ 
quired, this practice should not be extended so far as in those which 
are intended for the food of man. 
The character of animals, or the external appearance by which 
the varieties of the same species are distinguished, are observed in 
the offspring; but those of the male parent more frequently predo¬ 
minate. Thus, in the breeding of horned animals, there are many 
varieties of sheep, and some of cattle, which are hornless. 11 a 
hornless ram be put to horned ewes, almost all the lambs will be 
hornless; partaking of the character of the male more than of tire 
female parent. An offspring without horns, or rarely producing 
horns, might be obtained from the Devonshire cattle, by cross¬ 
ing with bulls of the Galloway breed, which would often improve 
the fc-.m of the chest, in which the Devonshire cattle are often de¬ 
ficient. 
Examples of the good effects of crossing may be found in the im¬ 
proved breeds of horses and swine in England. The great improve¬ 
ment in the breed of horses arose from the crossing with the dimi¬ 
nutive stallions, Barbs, and Arabians; and the introduction of Flan¬ 
ders mares into the country was the source of improvement in the 
breed of cart horses. The form of the swine has been greatly im¬ 
proved by crossing with the small Chinese boar. 
Examples of the bad effects of crossing a breed, are more numer¬ 
ous. When it became the fashion in London to drive large bay 
horses, the farmers in Yorkshire put their stallions to much larger 
mares than usual, and thus did infinite mischief to their breed, by 
5 (reducing a race of small chested, long-legged, large-boned, worth- 
ess animals. A similar project was adopted in Normandy, to en¬ 
large the breed of horses there, by the use of stallions from Hol¬ 
stein ; and in consequence the best breed of horses in France would 
have been spoiled, had not the farmers discovered the mistake in 
time, by observing the offspring much inferior in form to that of 
their native stallions. Sonic graziers in the isle of Sheppy conceiv¬ 
ed that they could improve their sheep by large Lincolnshire rams ; 
the produce of which, however, was much inferior in the shape of 
the carcass and the quantity of the wool; and the flocks were great¬ 
ly impaired by this attempt to improve them. Attempts to improve 
the animals of a country by any plan of crossing should be made 
with the greatest caution; for by mistaken practice, extensively 
pursued, irreparable mischiefs may be done. In any country 
where a particular race of animals has continued for centuries, it 
may be presumed that their constitution is adapted to the food and 
climate. 
It may be proper to improve the form of a native race , but at the 
same time it may be very injudicious to attempt to change their 
size; for the size of animals is commonly adapted to the soil and 
climate which they inhabit. Where produce is nutritive and abun¬ 
dant, the animals are large, having grown proportionally to the 
quantity of food which, for generations, they have been accustomed 
to obtain. Where the produce is scanty, the animals are small, be¬ 
ing proportioned to the quantity of food which they were able to 
procure. Of these contrasts, the sheep ot Lincolnshire and Wales 
are samples. The sheep of Lincolnshire would starve on the moun¬ 
tains of Wales. 
Crossing the breeds of animals may be attended with bad effects in 
various ways, and that even when adopted in the beginning on a 
good principle ; for instance, suppose some larger ewes than those of 
the native breed, were taken to the mountains of Wales, and put to 
the rams of that country; if these foreign ewes were fed in propor¬ 
tion to their size, their lambs would be of an improved form, and 
larger in size than the native animals ; but the males produced by 
cross, though of a good form, would be disproportionate in size to 
the native ewes; and, therefore, if permitted to mix with them, 
would be productive of a starveling, ill-formed progeny. Thus a 
cross, which at first was an improvement, would, by giving occasion 
to a contrary cross, ultimately prejudice the breed. The general 
mistake in crossing has arisen from an attempt to increase the size 
of a native race of animals; being a fruitless effort to encounter the 
laws of nature. 
From theory, from practice, and from extensive observation , the last 
more to be depended on than either, “it is reasonable,” Cline con¬ 
tinues, “to form this conclusion * it is wrong to enlarge a native 
breed of animals, for in proportion to their increase of size, they be¬ 
come worse in form, less hardy, and more liable to disease.”•— Com¬ 
munications to the B. of Agriculture, Vol. IV. p. 446. 
Vol. I. C 
Miscellaneous. 
GATHERING AND CURING HOPS. 
Taking the crop is the most important operation in the hop eco¬ 
nomy. Hops are known to be ready for pulling when they acquire 
a strong scent, and the seeds become firm and of a brown colour, 
which in ordinary seasons, happens in the first or second week of 
September. And when the pulling season arrives, the utmost assi¬ 
duity is requisite on the part of the planter, in order that the differ¬ 
ent operations may be carried on with regularity and despatch ; as 
the least neglect in any department of the business, proves in a 
great degree ruinous to the most abundant crop, especially in pre¬ 
carious seasons. Gales of wind at that season, by breaking the la¬ 
teral branches and bruising the hops, prove nearly as injurious as a 
long continuance of rainy weather, which never fails to spoil the 
colour of the crop, and thereby render it less saleable. 
As a preparation for pulling the hops, frames of wood, in number 
proportioned to the size of the ground, and the pickers to be em¬ 
ployed, are placed in that part of the field which, by having been 
most exposed to the sun, is soonest ready. These frames, wl.ich 
are called bens or cribs, are very simple in the construction, being 
only tour pieces of boards nailed to four post, or legs, and when 
finished, are about seven or eight feet long, three feet broad and about 
the same height. A man always attends the pickers, whose busi¬ 
ness it is to cut over the vines near the ground, and to lay the poles 
on the frames to be picked. Commonly two, but seldom more 
than three poles are laid on at a time. Six, seven, or eight pickers 
(women, girls, and boys) are employed at the same frame, three or 
four being ranged on eacli side. These, with the man who sorts 
the poles; are called a set. The hops after being carefully separat¬ 
ed from tire leaves and branches, or stalks, are dropped by the pick¬ 
ers into a large cloth, hung all around within side of the frame with 
tenter-hooks. When the cloth is full, the hops are emptied into a 
large sack, which is carried home, and the hops lain on a kiln to be 
dried. This is always done as soon as possible afttr they are picked, 
as they are apt to sustain considerable damage, both in color and 
flavor, if allowed to remain long in sacks, in the green state in 
which they are pulled. In very warm weather, and when they are 
pulled in a moist state, they will often heat in five or six hours; 
for this reason the kilns are kept constantly at work, both night and 
day, from the commencement to the conclusion of the hopping sea¬ 
son. 
To set on a sufficient number of hands, is a matter of prudence 
in the picking season, that the vast or kilns may never be unsup¬ 
plied with hops; and if it is found that the hops rise faster than 
could have been expected, and that there are more gathered in a 
day than can be conveniently dried off, some of the worst pickers 
may be discharged ; it being very prejudicial for the green hops to 
continue long in the sacks before they are put on the vast, as they 
will in a few hours begin to heat, and acquire an unsighily colour, 
which will not be taken off in the drying, especially if the season 
be very moist; though, in a wet hopping, it is no easy matter to 
prevent the kilns from being overrun, supposing that there were 
pickers enough to supply them if the weather had been dry, because 
in a cold wet time the hops require to lie a considerable while longer 
on the kiln, in order that the superabundant moisture may be dried 
up. It is therefore expedient in this case that each measuring be 
divided into a number of green pockets or pokes. The number of 
bushels in a poke ought never to exceed eleven : but when the hops 
are wet, or likely to continue together some time before they go on 
the kiln, the better way is to put only eight bushels in a sack, pock¬ 
et or poke. 
Donaldson asserts, that diligent hop pickers, when the crop is to¬ 
lerable abundant, will pick from eight to ten bushels each in a day, 
which when dry, will weigh about one hundred weight, and that it 
is common to set the picking of hop grounds by the bushel. The 
price is extremely variable, depending no less on the goodness of 
crop than on the abundance or scarcity of laborers. The greatest 
part of the hops cultivated in England are picked by people who 
make a practice of coming annually from the remote part of Wales 
for that purpose. — Enc. of Ag. 
The operation of drying hops, is not materially different from that 
of drying malt, and the kilns, or vasts, are of the same construction. 
They should be dried as soon as possible after they are gathered ; 
if not immediately, they must be spread on a floor to prevent their 
changing colour. The best mode of drying them is with a fire of 
