Of all the various pursuits of agriculture, the cul- cramme us with the wares and fruits of their coun tivation of the hop is unquestionably among the most trie, and doe anye thing that myght put impediment interesting. The whole process, from the formation to our cultivating the hoppe, discommending our of the hills, the planting of the set, and its growth, soyle and climate, sending us to Flanders for that to the polling of the plant, its arriving at maturity, which we can finde better at home." The eloand the season of hop-picking, is fraught with inter- quence of "Mayster Reynolde Scott," would seem est and when nature, in due season, clothes the to have produced little effect upon the worthy citivine with innumerable bunches of yellow flowers, zen of London; for soon after we find them petitionhanging majestically from the pole, then the hop- ing parliament against "two anusancies," Newcastle garden presents a scene rivalling in beauty and vari- coals, and hops, alleging, that the latter would spoil ety the vineyards of the south of Europe; and the the taste of the drink, and endanger the people's hop-growers and their friends are accustomed to health. And accordingly there was a law passed to tread the maze of the hop-garden, to watch the prog- prevent the use of that "perniciouse weed," the hop. ress of the plant, and to calculate upon the proba- The prejudice against it, however, wore off by deble recompense for the labour and many anxieties grees. In the course of about sixty years the merits suffered during the season, lest the drought or the and utility of this plant became more generally wet, the lightning, the wind, the worm, or the thou-known; towards the latter part of the reign of Elizasand other contingencies to which this sensitive plant is liable, should have injured it, or blasted its ripening maturity. The hop would appear to have been introduced into England at the commencement of the sixteenth century. It was first cultivated there in 1524, in the fifteenth year of Henry VIII. It prospered much, and shortly afterwards Reynolde Scott published a book of black letter recommending its culture; and he complains, in his "perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden," that the "Flemmings envye our practice herein, who altogether tende their own profite, seeking to impounde us in ignorance, to beth, and at the beginning of the reign of James I. hop-gardens appear to have become numerous, and the hops produced in abundance. They were introduced into this country by the earliest settlers, and have been cultivated in small quantities ever since. You will now find them growing in the eastern, western, and middle states, and in the eastern states particularly they have become quite an important article of commerce. The largest and most thriving hop-gardens are found in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Particular attention is paid to the culture of hops east of Boston, and also in the neighbourhood of that city. CULTURE OF THE HOP. dressed. These sets should be about five or six DRESSING. The first thing to be done is to choose a proper piece of ground to prepare for the hop-garden, and in doing this there are two most important considerations the nature of the soil and the local situation. The soil cannot be too rich, and if about three feet under this there be a stratum of rock or chalk, they will prosper better; but a stiff clay or wet land is by no means kindly to them. Some planters consider new land, others, moory land, the best. An eastern or northern aspect should be avoided, and the situation of the hop-garden should be, if possible, either towards the south or west, for the northeast winds are apt to nip the tender shoots in spring and the strong southwest winds often blow down the poles and injure the hops. When, therefore, a sheltered position cannot be found, trees are often planted for that purpose. Having chosen the ground it ought to be prepared the winter previous to planting, by being ploughed up to kill the vermin, or thrown open to the frost to become mellow, or malleable previous to being harrowed and receiving the manure. Some new or rich ground requires little or no manure; but if the ground be not so, a rich compost of manure and earth should be laid up in the winter, and then over the ground when ready, in heaps sufficient to put about half a bushel in every hole to plant the hops in. The hills should be about eight feet apart, that the air may freely pass between, for in a close plantation the hops are very subject to what the planters call the fire-blast. If the ground is to be ploughed with horses, after the hills are made, it will be most convenient to place them checkerwise, but if with the breast-plough or spade only, in a quincunx form; the arrangement is usually made by placing a stake where the hills are intended to be. After the manure is filled in, and the ground and holes prepared and covered over, it is now proper to plant the sets or cuttings from old binds. Great care should be taken in choosing the plants: for if they are not all of one kind, they will arrive at maturity at different periods, which will cause a great deal of trouble and expense to the grower. The two best sorts are considered the white and the gray bind; the latter is a large square hop, more hardy, bears more abundantly, and ripens later than the former. There is another white kind of hop, which ripens a week, and sometimes a fortnight, before the common sort. This, like most early plants, is more tender, and bears less in quantity; it, however, has the advantage of being first ready for the market. If three different portions of ground be About the middle of April, of the second year, judiciously planted with these three sorts there will hops are first poled with short poles, about six feet be this convenience, that they can be picked succes-long, to train the bind; and about the middle of May sively as they become ripe. If there be any particular hop from which it is desirable to increase plants, the superfluous binds may be laid down, when the hops are tied, the tops being cut off, and buried under the hill, which will then take root; or when the hops are dressed, cuttings can be saved for almost all these will grow and become good sets the following spring. Some planters consider the months of October and March the best to plant the sets; but they can rarely be had in October without destroying some plantation: and if the autumn should be wet, they are liable to rot. The best time, therefore, for procuring them is in March, when the hops are cut and This should be done when the hop-ground is dug, about January or February, and the earth should be gently removed with a spade, that you may the more conveniently cut the stock. If the hops were plant ed the spring before, they should be dressed in the February following, if the ground is not strong, in dry weather; if strong, the middle of March will do; if liable to produce rank binds, the end of March or the beginning of April may be soon enough. The earth being cleared away by an iron picker so as to lay open the stock to the roots, with a very sharp knife you must cut off all the shoots which grew up the last year, as well as the young suckers, or they will weaken the bind. That part of the stock which was the highest the preceding year, should be cut lower than the others; this will produce strong buds, and the binds will be regular. The dead tops of the hops, planted the year previous, should also be cut off, and the young suckers from the sets, and the stocks should then be covered with fine mould, three or four inches in depth. POLING. following, when the shoots have grown to about two feet, they are tied to the poles, by women and children, with rushes.* It is, however, only in strong lands that these plants produce sufficient to be worth picking, the first year of poling. In general, the ground is kept clear from weeds, and is manured and dug up again the following spring, and the hills again dressed, as before described; and in the month of April, in the third year, they are ready to receive longer poles, which are generally, now, from ten to fourteen feet long; the poles should be set deep in the ground, to bear the winds, and this is generally done by a round piece of iron, called a "hop-pitcher," This is called a "young garden." having an oval bulb at the end, pointed. Three gin to look brown, and when they emit a fragrant poles are generally used to each hill; these should scent, they should immediately be picked with be placed as near the hills as possible, with their great expedition. A storm of wind will now do them bending tops turned outwards, to prevent the binds great injury by breaking the branches, and bruising from entangling; and a sufficient space between and discolouring the hops. Hops picked wher should be left open towards the south to admit the green and bright, will sell for a third more than those sun's rays; this is the third year of planting, and which are discoloured. The first thing done is to first year of obtaining a crop; the following year fix the bins. Each bin is from eight to ten feet long the hops are poled with much longer poles, it being three feet six inches wide, and three feet six inches customary to add about two or three feet in length to high; it consists of a frame made of two long and the poles, each year, from the time of first poling, two cross-poles, with six upright legs, braced with until the eighth year, when they are poled with cross-trees at each end, projecting about two feet poles varying in length, according to the strength of above the top. Within this frame is hung a coarse the soil, from eighteen to twenty-two feet. In very canvass bag, in order to receive the hops; this is distrong ground the bind will sometimes grow from vided in the centre by a cross-bar, over which the one to two inches and a half in circumference, and bag falls, and forms, as it were, two bags. Upon the even as high as forty feet, but they are never poled cross-braces, or trees, projecting above the bag, like higher than twenty-five feet. Great care must be a fork, is laid a long pole longitudinally, this is calltaken not to overpole the ground, for then the stocked the "bin horse," upon which the poles rest while will be drawn too much, and your crop will be les- they are picking. Two men or women, or three boys sened, as the branches which bear the hops, grow or girls, may stand on each side of this frame, and very little till the binds have overreached the poles, pick poles, at a time. It is considered best to begin which they cannot do when the poles are too long. picking the hops on the east or north side of the If it be found that some hills have been under- ground, if convenient, as this prevents the southpoled, longer poles may be placed near to receive west wind from breaking into the centre of the garthe binds of those that are too short. The hop-bind den. Having made choice of a spot containing grows in a geometrically regular progression round about eleven hills square, the bin should be placed the pole, which tapers conically towards the top, upon the hill in the centre, having five hills each having reached which, it then falls over, hanging way, and when these are picked, the bin should be gracefully down round the pole. The poles, gene- removed back, in the same way, through the whole rally, are made of ash, alder, maple, sweet-chestnut, garden. or larch, the turpentine of which prevents vermin and the worm, but maple or aspen are considered the best, on account of their warmth, or, perhaps, because the climbing of the bind is assisted by the roughness of the bark. Ash or willow is more durable; but the sweet-chestnut, which is generally planted on purpose, is the most durable. TYING. When the binds have grown two or three feet high, and do not attach themselves to the nearest pole, they must be guided to it by the hand, and loosely bound with dried rushes, sufficient to permit them to grow, and turned towards the sun, whose course they will then follow. This should be done until all the poles are furnished with binds; each pole should have two or three; all the sprouts and binds for which there is no occasion, should be plucked off; but, if the grounds be young, they should be laid up together in the middle of the hill. When the binds grow out of reach, and forsake the poles, a stand-ladder is made use of in tying them. At the latter end of May, when the tying process is over, the ground has then its summer dressing; this is done by throwing up some fine earth on each hill; and, about a month after this, the alleys must be hoed with a Dutch hoe, and the hills made up. HOP-PICKING. In July the hops begin to blossom, earlier or later according to the season; early in August they bell; and when very forward, they arrive at maturity, and are sometimes ripe at the end of August or beginning of September; but generaliy, they are seldom ready to gather till October, when the hop-picking commences, and continues till November; they are ripe when they change colour; when the seeds be The bins being made ready, a man called a "polepuller," with a kind of instrument like a sickle with a long handle, cuts the binds round each pole at about three or four feet from the ground; for the cutting of them lower, especially while the hops are green, would occasion a great flowing of the sap and would weaken the root. Having cut the bind, he proceeds to raise the pole by means of an instrument called a 66 dog," ," which is a strong piece of ash pole, about six feet long, and about nine or ten inches in circumference at the base, tapering to five or six inches; to it is attached, about two feet from the lower end, a piece of iron, about ten inches long, jagged on the inside, and projecting from the haft or handle about five or six inches. The pole-puller clasps the pole with the iron part, rather low down, and resting the lower end on the ground raises the end which he holds, and the teeth of the iron, catching the pole, lifts it completely out of the ground. Some poles weigh, with the hops upon them, nearly a hundred weight; and when deep in the ground require great force; but this simple lever easily raises them. Having raised the pole, he then carries it to the bin, and lays it on the horse," with the hops around it, and the hop-pickers immediately commence picking. Sometimes the hop-pullers will work back in this way, forty or fifty yards before they remove the bins: when they do, it is called a 66 remove." The hops should be picked as free from leaves as possible; the sample of the hops being considered better in proportion as they are free from leaves and discoloured hops, called "flyers," which come from dead branches broken off by the wind, when the hops turn of a brown red colour. The hop-bins are emptied two or three times a day into clean hop bags, containing thirty or forty bushels, and are imme diately carried in carts or wagons to the oast or kiln | per cover is constructed, so as to be raised and low. to be dried; for if they remain long in the bin they ered at pleasure; when the hops begin to dry, and are apt to get discoloured. If the weather be hot, would burn, the moisture being nearly evaporated, no more poles should be drawn than can be picked the cover is let down within a foot, or less, of the in an hour, and they should be gathered when dry, hops, (like a reverberatory,) which will reflect the and in fine weather, if possible; this will save ex- heat upon them, so that the top will soon be as dry pense in drying, besides preserving their colour. as the lowermost, and every hop be equally dried. A small quantity of sulphur is generally used by Hops should never be gathered with the dew on them, as that makes them become mouldy. The the hop-drier, strewing it on the furnace, at the end crop of hops being picked, care must be taken of the of the operation, for drying each charge. The ef poles for the following year, and the haulm or bind fect is produced in consequence of the sulphurick of the hop, being stripped off, they are generally put acid (caused by the combustion of the sulphur) asunder a shed; but in extensive grounds, three or cending from the kiln, through the hops, which six poles are generally set up conically, and wide at gives them a very bright appearance, similar to that the bottom; being fixed firm in the ground with the imparted to straw or leghorn bonnets; there is a peniron patches, and bound together at the top, the rest alty for using it, although generally practised; and of the poles are set about them. These are called if used in moderation, is not considered in any way stacks, and by these means all the poles in the inside injurious to the hop, or the ale or porter in which it will keep dry, excepting the tops; and the rain run-is used. ning down the outside, the poles suffer no injury, as the wind soon dries them: on the ground, horizontally, they would receive more injury in a week, than in a year piled in this manner. DRYING. BAGGING AND POCKETING. The common After the hops are sufficiently dried, they are removed from the oast, and taken to the bagging-loft, where they remain in a heap for a few days, which causes them to become a little damp; this is occaThe hop-oast is generally built square, and made sioned by the sulphurick vapours, acquired in dry to hold two, four, six, or eight drying kilns, according ing, absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, which to the extent of the plantation. Each kiln is built makes them bear treading the better. with a brick-work furnace at the bottom, with iron method of bagging is as follows:-The opening of bars, and a door similar to a malt-kiln furnace, and the bag is fixed round and over a hoop, and is then was formerly constructed in a very slight man- dropped through a circular hole in the floor of the ner, merely for the purpose of using charcoal; but loft, the hoop being a little larger than the opening, of late, coke, made from seacoal, has come into gen- and resting on the floor; this will contain about two eral use in England, is not one fifth the expense, and hundred weight and a half of hops, and consists of answers the purpose equally well, while the sulphu- four ells and a half of ell-wide cloth; they tie a rous vapour arising from it adds to the colour of handful of hops in each lower corner of the bag to the hops. A square conical chamber is built above hold it by. Into this bag the hops are shovelled; the furnace, either of brick-work or of iron, which is which being filled, a man stands inside treading best, but more generally with slight timbers, lath and them down as close as possible-the closer they are plaster, ascending like an inverted cone, with its packed the better; when full, they undo the fastenbase to the floor above, through which there is an ing of the bag, and let it down to the floor below; the opening ten to fourteen feet square; over this, slight mouth of the bag is then closed up, a handful of hops rafters are fixed, at about six or seven inches apart: being tied at each corner, as at the bottom. Hop-pocketing is performed precisely the same way, these were formerly made of wood, upon which a hair-cloth was stretched to receive the fresh-gather-only that the pockets contain but half the quantity of ed hops to be dried; but now they are generally the hop-bags, and are made of strong coarse canvass, constructed of copper-wire, or copper-plates, pierced instead of the article called bagging, which is made full of small holes, and fixed upon iron ribs. This on purpose for hops, of a twine warp and a loose is enclosed by a wooden curb, which consists of four boards, from ten to eighteen inches high, and about an inch and a half or two inches thick, set up edgewise. The whole of this part is called the oast. The hops are spread over this, if dry, about a foot thick, but if green or wet, much thinner. The oast should be warmed before the hops are laid on, and then an even and steady fire must be kept up; it must not be too fierce at first, lest it scorch the hops, nor slackened, but gradually increased, till the The hop is a genus of the class Monœcia XXI., hops are dried; for, if slackened, the moisture which the fire has raised will be apt to fall back and and of the order, Pentandria V. Its specifick gene discolour them. After laying about nine hours, they rick character consists of a male flower, calyx pen must be turned; and in two or three hours more, taphillous, or five-leaved, having no corolla, but anthey may be taken off the oast. When they are thers, with two pores at the top. Female flower, dried sufficiently, it is indicated by the brittleness of calyx, an oblique entire scale of the Ament, or one the stalks, and the easy falling off of the hop leaves. large leaf; corolla none, but two styles, and one In order to prevent the trouble and expense of turning side within the calyx coated. The stalk is weak, the hops, the following ingenious and simple plan and climbs spirally round the pole or support, ascendis, in some places, adopted. A sheet-iron or cop-ing always from the right hand to the left, against twisted tow hoop, as large round as a strong cord. Bags are calculated for keeping hops much longer than pockets. Hops, well dried and packed in bags, will keep good several years, but care must be taken to keep them from damp. Hops for exportation, are sometimes packed by means of a powerful press and iron cylinders, by which a bag or pocket of hops can be reduced to one fourth of its usual bulk. BOTANY OF THE HOP, HUMULUS. The Seminole Indians have been ravaging a fair portion of East Florida, and attacking and murdering many of the inhabitants with an uncommon degree of barbarity. On the 28th of December last, a party of ten were attacked and five of them slain; among whom was the Indian agent, General Thompson. He received fifteen bullets, and all were scalped and shockingly mangled. On the 31st, a party of two hundred and twenty-seven white troops met a body of about three hundred Indians on the Withlacoochee river, and a sharp battle ensued. About forty Indians were killed, and many wounded; among the whites there were four killed and fifty-nine wounded. A special message of General Jackson, president of the United States, was transmitted to both houses of Congress, in relation to the French indemnification treaty, on the 10th of January. His language is: "It will be proper and sufficient to retaliate her present refusal to comply with her engagements, by prohibiting the introduction of French products and the entry of Frencn vessels into our ports." |