The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-28
HOPS LOOK SPLENDID.
Those Who Sprayed Vines Will
Have q Heavy Yield.
OVER A TON TO THE ACRE.
Picking VIM Begin This Week and Con-
einue Until October-Hints to Pick
srs on How to Fiji the Box.

which Is due TO energetic spraying. He
expects to harvest ton TO the acre, and
sees no reason why they should not be
strictly choice as to quality. The people who
handle hop tickets have been sorting and
getting them in order to he given out.
Quite number of growers think of COM
mencing September 4, while a few are
making preparations TO begin the last of
this month. b. +. Wright, of Orting.
thought his hops would be ripe enough TO
commence picking by the 18th. and Henry
Beckett, OF the same place, intends
commencing on the 3oth. He has thirty
acres of clean sprayed hops. and will en-
ploy seventy-tive pickers, all of whom are
secured, the picking lasting from fourteen
to twenty days. Mr.. Wright will employ
fifty pickers, and his yard is also clean,
having been sprayed. Frank +. Spinning
will begin picking either the very last Of
this month or the first of September in
his Stuck yards. John Croy, Of Sumner.
will begin on the 10Th.
Perhaps the largest dealers in birthstone
and sulphur north of San Francisco are
located In Puyallup, and their sales this
year are far ahead Of any other year, hav-
ing already sold 100 tons, the larger sales
being due to covering more territory than
ever before, as they have sold great deal
in British Columbia
The would-be hop pickers are gaining in
knowledge as we'll as the grower, for when
they are able they visit the yards unknown
to the owner and sample his hops, going
all through the yards. Thus they find
where the best places are to pick. and en-
gage themselves accordingly. There are
several conditions of the hops which are
to the advantage or disadvantage of the
picker, which tells very materially in the
number of tickets received and the num-
Der of dollars carried home. When the
hops are lousy. too light or too heavy, and
when they are too much punched On the
poles, it retards the hop picker. The
hops are usually small where the vermin
are present. and many growers in such
yard will have many poles thrown out, all
of which creates delay, and when they are
too light they do not fill up fast. and many
poles must be picked to fill a box OF course
changing poles consumes valuable time.
When the hops are too heavy or punched
or when there is an overabundance of
leaves and the top of the vine has fallen
down there is great mat of vine. leaves
and hops. Each hop must be picked, even If
the picker is obliged to pick each hop sep
arately, and no large leaves or stems must
be allowed to fall IN, 80 this is very slow
work for the pickers. Sometimes among
this kind of hops not more than a box
day can possibly be picked, and many
times much less. The ideal picking is in
a yard clear of vermin. where the vines
cling to the poles to the top, or where the
Irvine is used and the arm comes out free
and great handfuls of large, hard hops Of
just the right color, green turning to q
light yellow, may be picked as fast as the
picker is able to make his or her fingers
fiy, and the box may be easily
kept clean of leaves and stems with this
kind of hops. The picking of hops in the
Northwest is very much different from the
picking in the East. In the first place the
boxes here are all separate and hold thir-
teen bushels level or fifteen bushels heap
ing, for which 81 is the usual price paid, in
several rare instances varying 25 cents both
ways. The Eastern boxes are built four
together and hold from seven to ten
bushels each, and anywhere from 80 to so
cents paid per box. Each persons pole
rests at the side of tho box upon a cross
piece several feet above the box, SO it is
very handy to pick right into the box,
and the boxes are filled rapidly when the
hops are nice and somewhat damp
and the boxes not Jared, which
causes them to settle very much.
In this country much has been
learned from the Indians, who go into the
hop yard loaded with innumerable baskets
of all descriptions, manufactured by
themselves. These baskets are filled by
family. Every member, no matter how
old or young, takes a hand in the work,
and when sufficient hops have been thus
picked to fill box they are carefully
turned into the hop box and ticket called
for, and they are passed usually before
they have time to settle. Thus many more
boxes may be picked by this method than
could be done by picking directly into the
boxes. The squaws use blankets or any
thing they can get hold Of to carry the
hops if they do not have their baskets.
and keep the hops in the shade.
1t will take an ordinary green hand two
days to fill a box, when usually, with good
hops, two and three boxes may be picked
per day. while few have gone above this.
Commonly, if a person is good berry
picker he viii become q good hop picker.
but there is such difference in people
that it is hard to tell beforehand how
many boxes a person can pick. As
usual thing men are very poor pickers, and
il is ludicrous to see how crestfallen a
great, strong man will appear when he
finds himself 30 far behind poor little
woman with half q dozen small children.
The latter pickers are the ones that pile
mp the hop tickets, while the average man
cannot earn enough to buy his tobacco
and board at hotel while picking and
have enough money to take him very far
away when he is through. 1t requires just
the training that only few men get, and
that is ouickness and defines with the
fingers. A woman unaccustoiued to the
work was several years ago attempting to
fill box with hops. She had picked into
it two days and then it was only
half full and IL was coming on night,
when an old siwash who had been watch
ing her came along and grunted out his
dissatisfaction and offered to help her ill
It, He took blanket and picked about
bushel upon it, then jumped into the box
and tramped about until the box was full
Of hops when he jumped out and put his
bushel on top, and 10, the box was run
ming over. The growers would not allow
this many times, as 1t breaks the hops,
which should be preserved whole. bu, il
shows how carelessness by jostiing the
box will settle them and the hot sun wilt
them until they are hard mass. To make
hop picking pay work must be commenced
early and continued late, but the finest
time to have the hops fill up fast is when
it is cool and the dew is on either early in
the morning or late at night. The whites
use baskets kegs. barrels etc. for their