170 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
THE HOP CULTURE. 
The soil most favorable to the growth of hops, is a deep rich loam, 
pretty strongly inclining to clay, moist, but not wet; and the subsoil should 
be porous, so as not to retain the water which settles from the surface. 
The largest crops are grown in Britain upon a kind of slaty ground, where 
the understratum is rock. The most desirable situation for a hop planta¬ 
tion, is ground sloping gently towards the south and southwest, and 
screened by means of high grounds or forest trees, from the north and 
north-west. At the same time it should not be confined so as to prevent 
the free circulation of air, which is indispensably necessary to the well being 
of the hops, as not only conducing to the health and vigor of the plants, 
but as tending to prevent blight and mildew. The neighborhood of fenny 
or swampy grounds is unfavorable to the hop crop. 
In preparing the soil previous to planting, considerable attention is ne¬ 
cessary by fallowing, or otherwise, to destroy the weeds, and to reduce 
the soil to as pulverized a state as possible. The ploughing should be deep, 
the ridges made level, and the dung applied with a liberal hand. 
The mode of planting is in rows, with intervals generally of six or eight 
feet. A good way is, after the ground is prepared, to draw furrows both 
ways across the field, at the intended distance of the hills, and to plant at 
the points of intersection. At eight feet apart, there will be 680 hills on 
an acre; at six feet 1,210. Planted in this way, the ground may be kept 
clean and worked by the harrow and cultivator. 
The time of planting is generally in the spring, when the old plants are 
dressed and pruned, and from which cuttings and sels maybe obtained.— 
Plantations may also be made in Oct. and Nov. Sometimes roots and 
sets are planted one ye^r in the garden, to give them strength and vigor, 
and then removed to the plantation. 
The plants of cuttings should each have two joints or eyes; from the 
one which is placed in the ground springs the root; and from the other the 
stalk, provincially the bind. They should be made from the most healthy 
and strong binds, being cut generally to the length of five or six inches. 
When the ground has been marked out, take out a spit or spade depth of 
earth where the furrows cross, loosen the earth below, and throw in half 
a bushel of fermented dung, or compost, or surface mould, into each 
hole; then replace so much of the earth taken out as to form a small 
hillock. Upon this put in, with a dibble, five or six sets, at intervals of 
six inches, inclining to the centre, where one of the plants may be 
placed. 
An interval crop is generally taken the first summer, of beans, potatoes, 
or even corn, though the smaller the system of roots of the internal crop 
the better. It should be a hoed crop, in order that the ground be kept 
clean. The hops do not produce any thing the first year. The common 
cultivator may be used in cleaning the interval crop, the hop hills may be 
slightly earthed, and weeds destroyed. 
The process of tilling, hoeing, and earthing up, is an annual opera¬ 
tion, performed in the spring, and manure is applied once in three years. 
It is either laid on the hills of the hops, or in the rows, and buried with a 
shallow furrow. In June the operation of twisting is performed on such 
plants, planted in the spring, as are not expected to produce any crop that 
season; and consists in twisting the young vines into a bunch or knot, so 
as to induce a more vigorous growth of roots. 
The yearly dressing of established hop plantations consists of what is 
provincially called picking. This operation is generally commenced as 
early as the season and soil will permit, in April, when the hills are 
spread out, in order to give epportunity to prune and dress the stalks.— 
The earth being then cleared away from the principal roots by an iron in¬ 
strument called a picker, resembling a dung fork, but with more and 
lighter teeth, the remains of the former year’s vines are cut off', together 
with the shoots which were not allowed to attach themselves to the poles 
the former season, and also any young suckers that may have sprung up 
about the edges of the hills; so that nothing is allowed to remain that is 
likely to injure the principal roots, or impede their shooting out strong vi¬ 
gorous vines at the proper season. After the roots are properly cleaned 
and pruned, the hills are again formed, with the addition of the manure, 
when applied. 
Polling the hop is performed in April, when the shoots have risen two 
or three inches. The poles may be 12 to 15 feet in length, and sufficiently 
stout to resist the strength of the wind, w'hen covered with the hop vines. 
They are fixed in the ground by making deep holes with an iron crow, 
and ramming the earth well round them after they are inserted in the holes. 
Two, three or four poles are placed at each hill, in such position as to 
leave the south side open to the meridian sun. 
Tying the vines to the poles, is an important operation. It is perform¬ 
ed as soon as the vines have grown sufficiently to require it, and repeated 
till they have attained a secure height. Two or three strong vines are se¬ 
lected for each pole, wound round, and tied loosely with withered rushes 
bass matting or other ligature. The remaining vines are then cut away 
Picking the crop is thus performed. Frames of wood are raised in the 
most convenient part of the plantation. These frames consist of four 
boards nailed to four upright posts, the whole frame being about 8 feet 
long, 3 feet wide and 3 feet high. Six, seven, or eight pickers, gene' 
rally women or boys, are placed at the frame, three or four being at each 
side. The plants being cut through at the root, the poles are lifted up and 
laid upon the lrame with the hops upon them. The pickers then can 
freely pick off the hops, which they drop upon a large cloth which is hung 
upon the frame with tenter hooks. When this cloth is full, the hops are 
emptied into a large sack and carried to the drying house, where they are 
kiln dried and bagged for market. The hop crop should be gathered when 
it is ripe, and before the autumnal frosts. For the criteria of ripeness, or 
the period when they are best fitted to gather, and directions for drying, 
we refer to the brew'ers’ circular, at p. 83 of this volume. 
The process of packing, is thus managed. In the floor of the room is 
a round hole, equal to the size of the mouth of the bag. The mouth of 
the bag is then fixed firmly to a strong hoop, which is made to rest on the 
edge of the hole. The bag is then let through the hole, suspended by the 
hoop, and the packer goes into it. Another person puts the hops into the 
bag in small quantities at a time, and the picker tramples them firmly 
down. When the bag is full, it is drawn up and the end is sewed. The 
hops are now ready for market. In the mean time the poles in the plan¬ 
tation have been stripped of the stems attached to them, and set up in 
stacks to await the following year. A hop plantation lasts from 10 to 15 
years, when it must be renewed, the old roots dug up, and fresh sets 
planted, on another plat of ground. 
The produce of the hop is variable. It varies from two to 20 hundred 
weight the acre—1,200 is perhaps about the medium. We have no data 
as to the cost of labor; but assuming the above medium, and that the ave¬ 
rage price is 20 cts. per lb. the produce of an acre will be worth $240, ex¬ 
penses to be deducted. 
From the New- York Farmer. 
THE IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION TO FARMERS. 
BY HENRY COMAS. 
The station in the community occupied by the agricultural class, is com¬ 
manding and important. In every country of any considerable extent, 
they constitute the most numerous part of the population; and that upon 
which all others ultimately depend. The products of agriculture are the 
first form of wealth; and without the labors of the husbandman, every 
other occupation must cease. Where agriculture has been extensively 
carried on, and estates large, there the planter or landholder has generally 
held a high political estimation; and exercised all the influence to which 
he could justly aspire. In England, the nobles and barons, in Europe, 
the feudal lords and princes, and in our own country, the southern plant¬ 
ers, have maintained a high rank, and wielded a powerful control in the 
affairs of the country. These individuals, however, scarcely deserved to 
be classed with the agricultural population, since, with some few occasional 
but most honorable exceptions, they have seldom taken any immediate in¬ 
terest in agriculture, properly so called, or entered into its details farther 
than to receive its rents; and then, we should be happy if truth did not 
compel us to add, have looked with disdain and scorn upon the actual til¬ 
lers of the soil, those whose severe toil furnished them the means of sub¬ 
sistence, luxury, and wealth. 
In our own country, in those parts of it where free labor only is known, 
and where, especially in New-England, the land is greatly subdivided in¬ 
to innumerable and comparatively very small freeholds, and the owners 
are themselves the actual cultivators of the soil; there the farmers, though 
not a degraded class, have yet failed to have that place in the public esti¬ 
mation, and that influence in the public concerns, to which, as a class, 
the part they perform, and the contributions they render to the public 
weal, entitle them. The professional man, the merchant, the trader, the 
tavern-keeper, the manufacturer, and the mechanic, take precedence of 
the farmer; and feel at liberty, unless he has about him the artificial in¬ 
signia of some office, to look down upon him. To this law of rank, if so 
it may be called, the farmer, in general, submits without remonstrance 
or complaint, and consents to see even the shiftless, idle, and dissolute, 
who live only to consume the fruits of the earth, and take no share of the 
public burthens, and contribute not a whit to the substantial welfare or 
real improvement of the community, preferred before him. 
Now, do we wish to excite in the farmers a foolish ambition? Do we 
desire to make them eager after distinctions, which have no substantial 
importance? Would we have them deserting the plough, quitting the 
honorable though humble occupations of their own domicils, and enter 
the arena of political strife, and engage in the idle struggles for prece¬ 
dence, notoriety, and display, which every where excite and agitate the 
community? Far from this. We think this would be alike injurious to 
their interest and comfort. We think farmers are almost always losers by 
every engagement or occupation disconnected with their proper, pursuit, 
which necessarily carries them away from home. We do not mean occa¬ 
sional absences, in which a farmer may go abroad, to see, as Bakewell 
expresses it, “ what his neighbors are about;” for in this way, he may 
get much valuable information, which otherwise he could not acquire; but 
we mean engagements, occupations, and absences, which necessarily di¬ 
vert his attention from the proper business of his farm. We have never 
known a farmer set up for a politician, or a jockey, either on the turf or 
in the market, or a man of pleasure, without his farm suffering for it. 
But what vve desire is, that the occupation and profession of agriculture 
