plant the cuttings at once where they are to remain, and by others they are nursed a year in a garden. An interval crop of Beans or Cabbages is generally taken the first year. Sometimes no poles are placed at the plants till the second year, and then only short ones of six or seven feet. The third year the Hop generally comes into full bearing, and then from four to six poles from fourteen to sixteen feet in length are placed to each circle, or one pole to each plant, if cultivated in straight rows. The most durable timber for poles is that of the Spanish Chesnut. The after culture of the Hop consists in stirring the soil, and keeping it free from weeds in guiding the shoots to the poles, and sometimes tying them for that purpose with bass or withered rushes; in eradicating any superfluous shoots which may rise from the root, and in raising a small heap of earth over the root to nourish the plant. Hops are known to be ready for gathering when the chaffy capsules acquire a brown colour, and a firm consistence, Each chaffy capsule, or leaf calyx, contains one seed. Before these are picked, the stalks are detached, and the poles pulled up, and placed horizontally on frames of wood, two or three poles at a time. The Hops are then picked off by women and children. After being carefully separated from the leaves and stalks, they are dropped into a large cloth hung all round within the frame on tenter hooks. When the cloth is full, the Hops are emptied into a large sack, which is carried home, and the Hops laid on a kiln to be dried. This is always done as soon as possible after they are picked, or they are apt to sustain considerable damage, both in colour and flavour, if allowed to remain long in the green state in which they are picked. In very warm weather, and when they are picked in a moist state, they will often heat in five or six hours; for this reason, the kilns are kept constantly at work, both night and day, from the commencement to the conclusion of the Hop-picking season. operation of drying Hops is not materially different from that of drying malt, and the kilns are of the same construction. The Hops are spread on a hair cloth, from eight to twelve inches deep, according as the season is dry or wet, and the Hops ripe or immature. When the ends of the Hop stalks become quite shrivelled and dry, they are taken off the kiln, and laid on a boarded floor till they become quite cool, when they are put into bags.

The

The bagging of Hops is thus performed in the floor of the

room where Hops are laid to cool, there is a round hole or trap, equal in size to the mouth of a Hop-bag. After tying a handful of Hops in each of the lower corners of a large bag, which serve after for handles, the mouth of the bag is fixed securely to a strong hoop, which is made to rest on the edges of the hole or trap; and the bag itself being then dropped through the hole, the packers go into it, when a person who attends for the purpose, puts in the Hops in small quantities, in order to give the packer an opportunity of packing and trampling them as hard as possible. When the bag is filled, and the Hops trampled in so hard that it will hold no more, it is drawn up, unloosed from the hoop, and the end sewed up, two other handles having been previously formed in the corners in the manner mentioned above. The brightest and finest coloured Hops are put into pockets or fine bagging, and the brown into coarse or heavy bagging. The former are chiefly used for brewing fine ale, and the latter by the porter brewers. But when Hops are intended to be kept two or three years, they are put into bags of strong cloth, and firmly pressed so as to exclude the air.

The stripping and stacking of the poles succeed to the operation of picking. The shoots or bind being stripped off, such poles as are not decayed are set up together in a conical pile of three or four hundred, the centre of which is formed by three stout poles bound together a few feet from their tops, and their lower ends spread out.

The produce of no crop is so liable to variation as that of the Hop; in a good season an acre will produce 20 cwt. but from 10 to 12 cwt. is considered a tolerable average crop. The quality of Hops is estimated by the abundance or scarcity of an unctuous clammy powder which adheres to them, and by their bright yellow colour. The expenses of forming a Hop plantation are considerable; but once in bearing, it will continue so for ten or fifteen years before it requires to be renewed. The Hop is peculiarly liable to diseases; when young it is devoured by fleas of different kinds; at a more advanced stage it is attacked by the green fly, red spider, and ottermoth, the larvae of which prey even upon the roots. The honey-dew often materially injures the Hop crop; and the mould, the fire-blast, and other blights, injure it at different times towards the latter period of the growth of the plant. It appears from an article in the "Genesee Farmer," that the culture of Hops is becoming an important branch of

husbandry in the State of New-York. A correspondent observes, that "as fine samples have been grown in Orange and Madison counties as in any part of the world. The Hop is considered somewhat precarious; but when the season is good, the profit is very great. The average product may be stated at 700 lbs., though it has reached 1600 lbs. to the acre; and in the latter case the expense amounted to sixty dollars. The ordinary, or average price, may be stated at eighteen cents per pound. The profits on an ordinary crop, according to these assumed data, would be about seventy dollars from the acre. It often falls materially short of this, however, from the want of knowledge and care in gathering and drying the crop.

"The quantity of Hops taken to Albany and the neighbouring towns on the Hudson, this year, (1834) has been estimated at 2,300 bales or 500,000 lbs., which, had not many of them been prematurely gathered, or badly cured, would have yielded to the growers ninety or a hundred thousand dollars. But of the 2,300 bales, there was not more than 200 bales, we are adviced, that ought to have received the denomination of first sorts. Many of them were picked too early, before the matter that imparts to them their value was sufficiently developed; and others were scorched or smoked in curing. This carelessness has seriously affected the character of our Hops abroad, and they are no longer purchased by the Philadelphia brewers. They would soon form an important article of export, if their character was raised by care in their culture and drying, and a rigid inspection."

The young shoots of both wild and cultivated Hops are considered by some as very wholesome, and are frequently gathered in the Spring, boiled, and eaten as Asparagus, The stalk and leaves will dye wool yellow. From the stalk a strong cloth is made in Sweden, the mode of preparing which is described by Linnæus in his Flora Suecica. A de. coction of the roots is said to be as good a sudorific as Sarsaparilla; and the smell of the flowers is soporific. A pillow filled with Hop flowers will induce sleep, unattended with the bad effects of soporifics, which require to be taken internally.

MONTHLY CALENDAR.

THE object of this Calendar is to assist the memory of the gardener, and to show him, at one glance, that he may find employment in some of the departments of gardening, in every month of the year. The figures refer to the pages in which further directions may be found, relative to the operations adverted to.

JANUARY.

It is customary at this season of the year, with all prudent men, to look around them, and endeavour to ascertain the results of their industry throughout the past year, in order to make improved arrangements for the future. The mere gardener, having no complicated accounts to adjust, may occupy his time to valuable purposes. If he be not a bookreader, he should be a book-keeper, (see page 7,) and he should frequently take a survey of his former practices and those of his acquaintances, with a view to improve on every thing he has done, or seen done. If he consults writers on Horticulture, he should do as the author has endeavoured to do in preparing this little work for the press; not adopt the mere theory of a subject, nor indulge in speculative ideas, nor even tread in the steps of others, but endeavour to erect his edifice of knowledge upon a good settled foundation. In all his pursuits, whether he attempts to follow the example of practical and exemplary men, hear lectures, or consult any authors on the subject, he should do as every sensible man does at his daily meals, take that which suits him best, and leave the residue for others. If this little work should be considered worth an annual perusal, he may read the general remarks in this month, (January,) and make a memorandum of such things as may be obtained at a leisure time, in preference to driving it off till it is wanted. I shall endeavour to make my Calendar serve as an index to the book, and in pursuit of my object, shall begin at page 1 of the general remarks, which suggests, that if a man has a garden to form, he will require fencing materials. If these

should be already at hand, every gardener should provide manures, ingredients for the destruction of insects, drilling machines, and other tools; poles or rods for the support of such Beans, Peas, or other climbing plants which he may intend to cultivate; and if he intend to use hot-beds, or forcing frames, he should make arrangements to get compost and heating materials, in time for the work to be performed in the next month. If he depends on this book for information, he may read the general remarks from page 6 to 14, and also page 85, on Forcing Vegetables.

FEBRUARY.

Although stern Winter with its ice-bound chains, exerts its influence over the soil, the gardener may find employment preparatory to commencing his operations of ploughing and planting, as the year progresses. Perhaps the most important business at this season, is to collect plenty of manure; next to this, the gardener, who intends to raise early plants for forcing or otherwise, should see that his hot-bed frames are in good repair and ready for use; he should also repair his sashes, and make straw mats to cover them with. In preparing dung or other heating materials for hot-beds, or forcing pits, let it be kept secure from heavy falls of snow or rain, and frequently turned over preparatory to its being made into a bed. With a view to give all attention to culture as the season advances, the gardener should look over his hardy fruit trees, and hardy vines, and commence pruning them, by cutting off all dead and superfluous branches; he may also clean trees from moss and canker, and search for the nests of insects, with a view to destroy them while in a torpid state, to prevent their spreading. If he has trellises, or any implements of husbandry out of repair, he should embrace the most favourable opportunities of putting them in good condition, and of repairing his fences, &c.

Previous to making hot-beds, select a situation that is well protected by a close fence or wall, and not in any way connected with any building calculated to harbour rats, mice, moles, &c., which are very apt to take up their abode in warm dung, to the great injury and sometimes the destruction of the beds. It is necessary that the foundation for the beds be drily situated, and not liable to be inundated with water from melted snow, &c. When all is prepared as