•244  Hop  Culture  in  Wisconsin,  {^""i^^^ln""' 
Baling  is  performed  in  portable  presses  of  sufficient  power  to  make  a 
handsome  bale,  weighing  about  two  hundred  pounds.  Care  is  neces- 
sary in  baling  not  to  powder  and  break  the  hops,  as  there  is  a  great  loss 
of  strength  by  the  lupulin  sifting  out,  and  it  also  injures  their  appear- 
ance upon  which  their  market  value  largely  depends. 
For  pharmaceutical  use  they  are  pressed  into  quarter-pound,  half- 
pound  and  pound  packages. 
In  the  years  of  1866-68  the  yield  reached  the  almost  increditable 
amount  of  2,400  to  2,500  pounds  per  acre,  2,000  pounds  per  acre  be- 
ing only  a  fair  yield  ;  but  since  then,  owing  partly  to  a  lack  of  care  in 
culture,  caused  by  a  decline  in  price  for  a  few  years  below  the  cost  of 
production,  and  the  appearance  in  our  yards  of  the  hop-leaf  louse  [Aphis 
humuli)^  which  make  their  appearance  on  the  lower  leaves  of  the  vine 
about  the  middle  or  last  of  June.  When  the  weather  is  favorable  for 
their  increase  (warm,  muggy  weather  especially),  they  increase  so 
rapidly  that  they  weaken  the  vine  by  sapping  the  juice,  but  they  do  not 
do  much  damage  usually  until  the  hop  is  fully  formed  and  a  few  days 
before  picking,  when,  if  the  weather  is  warm  and  muggy,  two  or  three 
days  is  sufficient  to  almost  destroy  the  whole  crop.  They  go  into  the 
hop  after  it  is  formed  and  suck  the  juice  from  the  tender  bracts,  and 
their  piercing  of  the  bracts  causes  the  juice  to  exude,  which,  in  dry  or 
bright  weather,  evaporates  and  does  no  damage  ;  but  in  damp,  muggy 
weather  the  evaporation  is  so  retarded  that  it  produces  decay  at  the 
point  of  puncture,  the  effect  of  which  is  a  black  spot,  known  as  mould  ; 
and,  when  the  lice  are  in  sufficient  numbers,  the  strobiles  will  be  found 
to  be  almost  entirely  black  inside,  and  are  then  nearly  worthless.  This 
and  other  causes  have  lessened  the  vitality  of  the  vine  to  such  an  ex- 
tent, that  1200  to  1500  pounds  per  acre  is  now  a  large  yield,  and  the 
average  yield  will  not  exceed  600  to  800  pounds  per  acre.  The  crop 
of  the  entire  State  of  Wisconsin  for  1874  was  from  15,000  to  20,000 
bales,  not  over  about  one-half  what  it  was  in  1868.  The  cultivation 
of  hops  is  conceded  to  be  more  renumerative  than  any  other  class  of 
farming,  when  followed  for  a  succession  of  years. 
As  the  quality  of  the  hop  depends  largely  upon  the  amount  of  lupu- 
lin it  contains,  care  is  necessary  to  select  those  which  have  been  fully 
matured  on  the  vine  before  picking,  when  the  lupulin  will  be  found  in 
much  greater  abundance,  and  of  better  quality.  When  derived  from 
the  fresh  hop  it  is  of  a  very  brilliant  light-lemon  color,  almost  trans- 
parent, and  of  a  strong  aromatic  odor.    When  rubbed  between  the 
