540  Hop  Culture  in  New  York.  { ^{T;^)*™' 
not  yield  quite  as  well  as  the  other  kinds  ;  no  difference,  however,  is 
to  be  noticed  in  the  vine,  and  the  hop  itself  is  of  large  size  and  fine 
quality,  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from  the  large  cluster.  The  pecu- 
liarity of  this  hop  is  that  it  matures  some  three  or  four  weeks  in' 
advance  of  the  ordinary  kinds,  thus  enabling  the  grower  of  them  to  get 
his  crop  into  market  before  the  ordinary  kinds  are  fit  to  pick. 
Hops  are  cultivated,  picked,  dried  and  baled  in  New  York  after 
much  the  same  manner  as  described  by  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Ramsey  in  his 
very  interesting  paper  entitled  "  Hop  Culture  in  Wisconsin,"  and  pub- 
lished in  the  "American  Journal  of  Pharmacy,"  1875,  page  241. 
In  starting  new  yards  the  hills  are  usually  placed  seven  feet  apart 
one  way  by  eight  the  other.  Some  growers,  however,  place  the  hills 
only  six  feet  apart  in  each  direction.  As  the  hop  plant  does  not  yield 
the  first  year,  corn  or  potatoes  are  planted  among  the  young  vines  ;  the 
latter  crop  is  the  better  for  the  hops,  because  it  gives  them  more  expo- 
sure to  the  sun.  The  second  year  the  vines  are  trained  on  poles  or 
strings  prepared  for  the  purpose  ;  two  poles  are  generally  used  to  each 
hill,  but  sometimes  three  are  used,  and  growers  who  set  the  hills  only 
six  feet  apart  place  but  one  pole  to  each  hill.  The  poles  are  set  imme- 
diately after  grubbing.  Close  cultivation  pays  best,  and  after  the  poles 
are  set  the  yards  may  be  tilled  nearly  every  day  to  advantage  ;  the  yard 
in  which  not  a  green  thing  aside  from  the  hop  itself  is  to  be  seen  being 
the  most  productive. 
When  the  vine  has  grown  two  or  three  feet  in  length,  usually  about 
the  middle  of  May,  tying  is  commenced.  This  work  is  largely  done 
by  women  and  girls,  who  at  this  time  go  through  the  yard,  and,  with 
strings  or  rushes  cut  for  the  purpose,  tie  usually  two  vines  to  each 
pole  ;  the  remaining  vines,  of  which  a  dozen  or  more  often  spring  from 
a  hill,  are  after  a  time  removed,  thus  throwing  the  whole  vitality  of 
the  plant  into  the  two  vines  which  ascend  the  pole.  The  largest  of 
the  young  vines  are  among  those  removed,  as  they  run  more  to  vine 
and  are  not  as  productive  as  those  of  a  medium  size.  The  tying  has 
to  be  kept  up  from  time  to  time,  until  the  vine  is  well  up  the  pole. 
The  stringing  of  hops  is  of  late  coming  much  into  vogue.  When 
hops  are  to  be  trained  in  this  way  they  are  set  out  the  same  as 
though  they  were  to  be  poled.  To  the  first  row  of  hills  are  placed 
stakes  four  or  five  feet  in  length,  pieces  of  broken  poles  being  gene- 
rally used  for  the  purpose ;   to  the  next  row  are  placed  long  poles 
