The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-01-12

| frultage. Ripe hops Will be well closed
at the points; will be harsh to the touch
and solid not fimsy and soft will be of
a rich golden color, or will have strong
tinge in that direction. OF course the
seed will he solid and thoroughly ma.
tured, though many of these can be
found in yard where the mass of the
hops are unfit to he picked.
Do not allow wagon to so into the
hop field. Better employ couple of ex-
ira men to every hundred pickers and
carry the hops to the road, as it is folly
to cultivate where wagons have beaten a
track, cross lots and every way, bruising
the roots, packing down the ground and
destroying the vitality of the hills in
s,reaks all over the yard. II the hops
are trained on long poles so that the vines
must be cut, then by all means cut as
high as possible. Hop vines cut near
the ground "bleed" much more than
those cut high, and in consequence
weaken the hills. With the stringed or
wire trellis yard the vines are never cut
at harvest time.
The tug of war begins with picking
Ii ever the pickers get the upper hand,
then dirty crop is assured. Firmness
in the start is the only salvation A few
days in the sample rooms Of buyers
where the difference in the price Of clean
and dirty hops is seen would impress
this on the grower. The practice OF
hauling the hops to the kiln in the boxes
in which they are picked opens the way
to avoid detection, unless the picker,
boxes and checks are all numbered, in
which case it is easy to trace back to the
picker. Some are preparing to sack in
the field to avoid this difficulty.
When tho hops are once delivered at
the hop house the duty of the agricultur-
alist ends and the manufacturer begins.
Hops are frequently spoiled while being
prepared for the market. II not sufli-
! cieutly cured, they are liable to heat in
the bale; ii too much cured especially at
high heat, the "life" or substance is
dried out of them; if too thin flooring
they will be colorless; ii too deep flooring
they will Sag" and become discolored,
and so on through list OF ills which are
only avoided by experience.
| Meeker claims the fires should be start
ed at least twenty-four hours before put
ting on the first flooring, and kept burn
ing in earnest. 1t is good plan to shut
the damper in the ventilator, so as to con-
fine the heat and dry out the walls and
floors. Ia new houses the fires should
be kept burning longer before laying the
first flooring. Every hop should be
"forked over" and the men not allowed
to dump the boxes where the hops are
'laid," but on the floor away from the
pile that has been forked over. One to
have an even flooring must seemingly
lay the hops little deeper as the door is
approached, as those first laid will have
settled. Sixty to seventy-fve boxes, av-
eragng 25 pounds of hops when cured,
is not too heavy in "a foot house. This
will make the hops about three ieot deep
when first laid.
Start the fire before the last box of hops
is on. Not a moment should be lost, for
the weight OF the hops will settle the
mass fast and shut off circulation. The
heat should be run up to the temperature
desired and kept there. The idea that
hops will bear greater heat at one time
than another is mistaken some. The
main point is not to give them too much
heat at any time. How high to run the
heat is question often asked. The an
swer to this is to keep it just as low as
possible and get the hops off in time for
the new flooring that must in turn be
laid. There is limit to this in that ii
the hops lie too long before curing, they
will sag and finally injure. Mr.. Meeker
says that in that climate it is found in
practice that about 49, degrees Fahren-
het is as low as can safely run, although
last year they succeeded in keeping it
down to125 degrees, though it took two
full days TO get n flooring off, but the
hops were cured to perfection.
Start the sulphur fires as soon as the
floors are laid, and keep the sulphur
pans at work until the last spot of damp
ness has disappeared. Burn the sulphur
away from the stove in pans placed on
posts for or five feet high in at least four
places in the room. Sulphur is not
burned primarily for coloring the hops as
is popularity supposed, though to some
extent the effect 10 to heighten and "even
up" the color to some extent. The sui
rhur fumes take chemical effect upon
the lupuline of the hop that preserves it
and likewise acts as drier. 1t takes
very much less fuel, hence less heat to
cure flooring of hops where plenty Of
sulphur is used than where but little is
burned. In fact it is impractcable to
cure the deep floorings without the free
use OF sulphur. Sulphur as a drier, at
the usual cost of two and a half cents a
pound, is cheaper than wood ct two dol
lars cord used alone. OF course, this is
not from the heat generated by the burn
ing sulphur, but from the chemical &C.
ton of the sulphurous acid gas general
ing and passing through the hops.
From q hundred to hundred and
twenty pounds OF sulphur to the ton of
hops is about right, or in other words q
pound and half to the box.