542  Hop  Culture  in  New  York.  {AmNJ0°Ci8P7h7arm* 
found  where  the  insect  does  not  flourish  in  considerable  numbers. 
The  hops  are  sometimes  destroyed  in  the  burr  by  this  insect,  but  most 
generally  they  enter  the  strobile  after  it  is  formed  and  nearly  ripe,  and 
destroy  the  hop  by  piercing  the  bracts,  thus  allowing  the  juice  to  exude, 
which  together  with  the  excretion  of  the  insect  causes  the  hop  to 
mould,  and  unless  they  are  very  soon  picked  and  dried  the  inside  turns 
nearly  black  ;  the  hop  then  acquires  a  disagreeable  odor,  and  is  ren- 
dered entirely  worthless. 
Blight,  or  rust,  is  a  disease  which  attacks  the  vine  generally  while 
the  hop  is  in  the  burr,  and  gives  it  the  appearance  of  having  been 
scorched  by  fire  j  the  hops  on  such  vines  do  not  fully  develop. 
Hop  picking  is  usually  commenced  about  Sept.  1st;  many  of  the 
pickers  are  brought  from  neighboring  cities,  and  boarded  by  the  grow- 
ers who  employ  them  until  the  hops  are  gathered,  some  of  the  larger 
growers  hiving  at  this  season  a  hundred  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  hop 
pickers  to  provide  for. 
The  crop  is  necessarily  gathered  before  entirely  ripe,  because  if  left 
to  fully  mature  on  the  poles  great  loss  occurs  from  their  being  then 
easily  shaken  from  the  vine  or  whipped  to  pieces  by  winds  ;  many 
growers,  however,  greatly  damage  their  crop  by  picking  when  too 
green  ;  when  this  is  done,  the  hop,  of  course,  does  not  contain  its  full 
amount  of  lupulin,  which  is  the  valuable  portion  ;  moreover,  the  roots 
are  much  damaged  by  a  too  early  cutting  away  of  the  vine  ;  indeed,  it 
appears  that  the  vine  is  usually  cut  away  too  soon  for  the  good  of  the 
root ;  as  in  cases  where  the  crop  has  been  so  damaged  as  not  to  be 
picked,  the  vine  not  being  cut  away  until  completely  dead,  the  yield 
the  following  year  has  been  found  to  be  unusually  large. 
Hop  picking  generally  lasts  from  two  to  three  weeks.  The  boxes, 
as  fast  as  they  are  filled  by  the  pickers,  are  emptied  into  sacks  ;  they 
are  then  taken  and  placed  in  kilns,  where  they  are  dried  by  artificial 
heat.  After  drying  the  hops  are  pressed,  by  lever  hand-presses,  into 
bales  of  about  two  hundred  pounds  each  ;  they  are  also  pressed  into 
small  packages  of  from  J  to  I  pound.  This  is  a  convenient  form  for 
the  druggist ;  but,  as  far  as  the  observation  of  the  writer  goes,  most 
all  of  the  hops  put  up  in  this  form  are  of  very  inferior  quality,  and 
many  of  them  entirely  worthless  ;  in  fact,  this  method  seems  to  be 
taken  for  disposing  of  utterly  worthless  hops,  which  could  not  be  sold, 
at  any  price,  in  any  other  form. 
