Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-08
Agrienltural.
English Hops.

perfect than hop-growiDg IN the weald {
Kent, no crop more beautiful, no harves
more full of romance. The plant, climb
the tall poles and circllng them with il
twining stem, hides the Stiffness of its sur
ports by the exuberant profusion of its leaves
The blossoms wave and droop in easy motio
to every whisper of the wind, the tende
fruit hangs in graceful wreatns from tb
foliage-bound poles. the vines dance ant
glitter beneath the lights and shadows of
midsummer noon, and there is no sight t,
equal it but the terraced vine yards of Rhine
land, and none to surpass 1t save the purple,
grape-yarIs OF Soutbron Italy. The soil II
fat aud of the richest in England, the lanC
fertile beyond any other in the three king
doms, the crop SO craving that t2O sterling
per acre is the average cost of annual dress
ing, and the value of the choice fields is ratet
from $500 to $1,000 per acre. There is Nc
branch of agriculture SO uncertain hop
growing. The young plant is SO tender tina
the slightest frost Injuries it. 1t has dea ly
foe in an insect which swarms upon it,
leaves in countless myrIads. 1t is drowned
by rains and CD 'ked by dust and parched by
drought, and if one crop in three is saved
entire the owner is satisfied.
The beauty of the hop vineyards seems tt
have inetlled itself into the nomenclature o.
its varieties. There is the Gold bne an,
White-bine, the Colgate and Grape-blne, tn,
Red-bine and Peari-bine and Royal bIne
There is, indeed, Jones variety, but i
grows on inferior land, and there is also th,
Hog-bop, but the rankness of It's flavor ha,
given 1t discredlt.
Hop-grow ing, however, with all IFS risks
is the most profitable farming 10 Eugland
Though the ground has to be scrupulously
cleaned and prepared, pulverized and ma
nured. though the plants have to be nurseo
with utmost care, though the poles must
of one size and length and carefully stuck il
the earth, and though the soil must be hoeC
and stirred and weeded, and the ranker hoE
growth checked, and what with all this ther,
must be delay of nearly three years befor.
any return is reaped, there Is no kind OF agrI.
culture in SO great favor. Nearly 60 10000
pounds of hops are used annually in Grea
Britain. The prices are generally steady
the demand is constant, the sales are quick
and the profits large.
Turn we now to hop-picbing and hop
pickers, which we have named as the subject
of our article.
About che middle of September hop picking
begins. You snuff it in the air. All over
Kent and Surrey, in the neighborhoJd OF
those cathedral towns, Canterbury and
Rochester, along the vale of the Severn,
where the bop-studded fields resemble low
oak-coppices, and their dark leaves have a
beauty which Rhenish vineyards combed
along the hills might envy. you scent the
peculiar odor of the hop Fir IN then until
the last Of October the gathering is rife. Not
only does the whole countryside around send
piekers to the harvest, but thousands from
Wales and Yorkshire and distant Ireland,
bringing their families with them, crowd the
hop counties for work.
10 the poor London population-the out
casts of the slums and wynds and narrow
courts-the shoeless men and shirtless boye
and homeless women and wretched Magda-
lens, this hop-picking season Is a general
harvest home. verybody-laborers, cos er-
mongers, shirtmakers, watermeu, beggars,
young thieves, clerks out of work, servants
come down from the great metropolis, thrOng-
ing the Kentsh roads, and everybody gets
work. The labor is OF the healthIest The
country air REEVES the pining citizen. Whole
armies Of pickers encamp at night in tn,
neIghborhood OF the grounds. In huts and
stables and out-houses, in abandoned mills
in crumbling barns and dllapidated cast
houses whose cracks are stuffed with straw
and clay, under penis, against walls, in tents,
and under canvas awnings, the great army
of workers cook, eat, drink. smoke and
sleeps.
The work is not paid for according to any
regular scale. From twopence to threepence
a bushel for picking is about the variation ID
price. At the lowest price shi ty picker
can earn two shillings City cents) day at
the highest, three shlllings (seventy five
cents.) In good years a man has been known
to enter the hop orchard pennless, with
wife and children, and go out at the end o
the harvest the possessor of EGO. The gath
erIDgs are as follows A number of frames
of wood, called bins, seven feet long. three
ieet wide, and three deep, are brought upon
the ground. The laborers are divided into
groups of men women and children, eight to
group Upon each set attends a man
armed with hop-dog. with which be cuts
the blne down to the roots, hooks up pole and
bine, and lays all swiftly across the bin.
then busy fingers ply their work. The bope
are plucked into the bin, and are received
upon cloth hung around interior OIL
hooks The leaves and haulms are thrown
away, and the poles carefully piled up Tor
use another year. James Ellis OF East Far
leigh. the Rothscbild of bop-growers, hao
a stock of hop-poles worth SO 000
After being picked the hops are removed
to the oast-house, where, over a furnace ol
charcoal, they are dried and bleached by the
fumes OF sulphur. 1be drying never ceases
until the hops are ready for market. Eighty
per cent of the hops are wasted In drying, so
that 100 pounds avoirdnpois of the green
hops are reduced to twenty. When suffi-
GENTLY dried, the hops are sboveed into
the stowage room, where they imbibe mois-
ture f ON the atmosphere. Ii this precautlon
be neglected, they loee their toughness, break
in pieces, and show, when drawn, dusty
sample.
The hops are now ready to be bagged for
market. In the floor of the stowage room
are circular trap-doors cut to the size of the
mouth OF the hop bags, and to these trap
door holes the bag mouths are hooked A
man now enters the bag and commences
tTeadiDg with his feet, While another man
shovels in the hops. In this way they ar.
trodden firmly down as fact as they are
thrown in, and the bag. is thus as closeiy
packed as it will bear The finer sort q,
hops are packed in pockets, which are only
bags OF closer texture.
Every bag and pocket of hops, before re-
moval from the oast, Is aeighed by an excise
officer, who numbers each, marks the we,gl t,
adds his name and residence, and finally
makes black cross upon the seam at the
mouth, that the Governments may not be
defrauded BY squeezing in more hops. This
is called sealing" In six months after
the crop is got in the duty is payable, two
pence on each pound.
J he crop is so precario1s, from the chill
dew of May morning TO the wlpterisb
breath Of an Autumn night, that the amount
OF Oury annually declared by the excise, in
respect of all the hops grown, is as much the
subject of wagers as the probable winning ]