The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1863-09-02
For the Grand Haven News.
CORRESPONDENCE.
VIENNA, NEAR ROME, N. Y, !
August 29, 1868. !

Mr.. J. w. BARNs-DEAR SIR: You
will perceive by the post-mark, hereto at
tached that have remained rather sta
tionary for the week past. Indeed, | am
so pleasantly located that am quite 10th
to seek other localities for pleasure or
health. And could you, for a moment,
view the enchanting landscape that
stretches hence, eastward and southwark,
as far as human vision can scan, beauti-
fully diversified with bill and valley, dale
and table land, with here and there the
lofty spires of some thriving village point
ing far into the blue vault that canopies
so much loneliness, and then, after the
eye has toasted on the beauty the live
long day, to close it and float away into
dream-land, at the soft lull of water foun-
tains under your window, you would be
constrained to pity those doomed to be
shut up in a narrow space of few acres,
palisaded by a thick growth ofpines, oaks,
maple and beech, year after year, and see
and know but little, comparatively, of
what is transacted in the wide busy world
around. | at least commiserate their
fortune.
| am at present located between the
great hop raising section, on the one hand
and the flax growing on tho other. In
Madison, the adjoining county TO this
Oneida-thousands of acres are devoted
to the raising of
Cultivators generally dovoting from
five to fifty acres to their culture. Hop
picking commences next week, when a
very large force of boys and girls, in that
and the surrounding counties, are to
be collected in hop-felds for busy work
and merry socalities. The modus oper-
andi is as follows: A large box, with
four compartments, holding in the aggrer
gate, about eight bushels, is placed at
some convenient point in the field, a girl
or boy stationed at each compartment
A man, with knife in hand, approaches a
pole, cuts the vines at its base, pulls it
up and places it with the hops attached
across the box, when the picker forthwith
commences the stripping process, unwind
ing the vines as she proceeds until the top
is reached, when the pole is taken by the
puller and stacked for future use. One
man is expected to supply the four pick
ers, during the day, with all the hops
that can be stripped by them, which usu-
ally amounts to about three full boxes, or
twenty-fOur bushels each, the price receiv-
cd therefor being usually from twenty to
twenty-five dollars q box, thus handsome
ly compromising the labor bestowed
When the hops are thus stripped they
are taken il large sacks, containing some
thirty or forty bushels, to the dry house,
where they are spread on canvass cloth, on
raised platforms, and then subjected to a
moderate heat from furnaces till thor
oughly dried, then pressed into large can
vass sacks, containing from three to five
hundred pounds, and taken by contractors
to market. II is said hop raising pays
producers large dividends on capital in
vested. Hop picking is with many
merry time-some of the raisers provid-
ing hall for the pickers where, work
done, music and dancing may be heard
almost every evening of the week. Other
producers, more piously inclined, require
their employees to attend religious services
instead OF seeking their amusements, par
ticularly on the Sabbath. The picking
process usually continues from threo TO
five weeks.
FLAX
Is raised by the hundred acres in close
proximity to this point. A large factory
for the manufacture of linen is in the
course of erection, few miles distant,
the company having about one thousand
acres of fax, now approaching maturity,