River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-02-21
The Theory of Hop Culture.

commune the practlce.
The Theory of Hop Culture.
From across the continent comes the
story of eleven acres of hops grown on
a California rancho, and Welding the
enormous quantity of 1884 pounds to
an acre. In the east 1000 pounds to
the acre is considered large yield
and in most yards, especially since the
appearance of the aphis, 1000 weight
would come nearer the average. The
diminution of the crops by devastation
of the louise cannot, by any known
means, be guarded against. But if we
eliminate this factor from the calcula-
ton, the difference between an ordin-
airy eastern hop crop and the greater
yield from the remote west is simply
the measure between the conditions of
of slipshod practice and those favor
able to an abundant harvest. For the
richness of soil and deep filth which
Nature probably furnished the Cali
fornia culturist, may be initiated if not
emulated here.
The soil that will grow corn will
grow hops, but it must be deeper for
the former than is absolutely necessary
for the latter. Hence the common
usage of setting out The hop roots in
starting a new yard with the same filth
as the corn, which occupied three.
fourths of the ground the first year, is,
on the face of it, an error. Subsoiling,
not trenching, will pay we'll in the long
run, and if this is not convenient, the
site of each hill of hops may be dug to
depth of eighteen inches and width
of two feet, and with plenty of ashes
and well rotted manure intimately
mixed with the soil, will show it's
profit in the first years yield.
Undoubtedly barn yard manure is
one of the very best helps for this as
for most ether crops. But it may be
supplemented to advantage by special
fertilizers, the nature of which is indi-
Gated by the composition of the plant.
The quantity of alkali taken from the
soil is shown by the quantity Of ashes
obtained by burning the bones; hence
the utility of wood ashes. The hop is
II green and succulent plant with many
leaves, and as ammonia is the element
of plant food which contributes
most directly to the nourlsh-
ment of such, the usefulness of
hen manure, guano and the like, is
plain. AS the ripening clusters are
filled with seeds, the number and
plumpness of which determine, in a
great measure, the weight of the dried
product, and as all seeds require phos-
phoric acid, the need of phosphates,
either in bone dust or superphosphate,
requires no argument for its demon
stration. Moreover, the pollen of
hops, the substance that gives their
greatest value for brewing, contains
sulphur. The use of gypsum, sulphate
of lime, may be predicated, both as a
source of sulphur in the nutrition of
the plant and as means of fixing am
monia from the air.
But in the use of these extra and ex
penslve fertilizers more care and com.
mon sense than is ordinary IN their
use must be shown, if profit, and not
loss, IS desired. Ammoniated manures
and alkaline materials can only be min
gled without detriment to the latter
when both are mixed with and covered
with moist earth as in the primal
preparation of the hill. In their SUBJ
sequent application the guano or its
equivalent may be mingled with the
ashes, and the two be applied at differ
emf times in the early stages of growth,
preferable just before rain. Bone
dust may be applied later, at the earli-
est signs of Towering,
So much tor manuring; but the most
excellent practice of this will not atone
for the lack of thorough filth, the fire.
quent stirring and aeration of the soil
Taken i'll connection with it should
double the annual yieid per acre OF
eastern hops. But this VIII not come
all at once, neither this year nor next,
although more scientific methods, as
we'll as more thorough practice, must
sometime become universal in the pro-
duction of crop which, for the area
devoted to it, is capable at current
prices OF paying better than any other
cultivated in the northern states.