These are native in this country, being found, growing spontaneously, by many of our rivers. There are four or five varieties, but no preference has been given to any particular one. Moist, sandy loam is the best soil, though good hops may be grown in abundance on any land suitable for corn or potatoes. Plow the land quite deep in autumn; in the spring, harrow the same way it was plowed. Spread evenly over the surface sixteen cords of manure to the acre, if your soil be of ordinary richness; cross-plow as deep as the first plowing; furrow out as for potatoes, four feet apart each way. Plant hops in every other hill of every other row, making them eight feet apart each way. Plant all the remaining hills with potatoes. Four cuttings of running roots of hops should be planted in each hill. Many hop-yards are unproductive on account of being too thick;—less than eight feet each way deprives the vines of suitable air and sun, and prevents plowing them with ease. The first year, they only need to be kept clean of weeds by hoeing them with the potatoes. In the fall of the first year, to prevent injury from hard frosts, put a large shovelful of good manure on the top of each hill. Each spring, before the hops are opened, spread on each acre eight cords of manure; coarse straw manure is preferable. Plow both ways at first hoeing. They require three hoeings, the last when in full bloom in the beginning of August. Open the hops every spring by the middle of May; at the South, by the last of April. This is done by making four furrows between the rows, turning them from the hills; the earth is then removed from the roots with a hoe, and all the running roots cut in with a sharp knife within two inches of the main roots. The tops of the main roots must also be cut in, and covered with earth two inches deep. Set the poles on the first springing of the vines; never have more than two poles in a hill, or more than two vines on a pole, and no pole more than sixteen feet high. Neglect this root-pruning, and multiply poles and crowd them with vines, and you will get very few hops. Select the most thrifty vines for the poles, and destroy all the others. Watch them during the summer, that they do not blow down from the poles. They must be picked as soon as they are ripe, and before frosts. The best picking-box is a wooden bin made of light boards, nine feet long, three feet wide, and two and a half feet deep; the poles are laid across this, and the hops picked into it by hand. In gathering hops, cut the vines two feet from the ground, that bleeding may not injure the roots.
Curing is the most important matter in hop-growing. Hops would all be of one quality, and bring the first price, if equally well cured. The following description (with slight abbreviation) of the process of curing, by William Blanchard, Esq., is, perhaps, as complete as anything that can be obtained. Much depends upon having a well-constructed kiln. For the convenience of putting the hops on the kiln, a side hill is generally chosen for its situation; it should be a dry situation. It should be dug out the same bigness at the bottom as at the top; the side walls laid up perpendicularly, and filled in solid with stone to give it a tunnel form: twelve feet square at the top, two feet square at the bottom, and at least eight feet deep, is deemed a convenient size. On the top of the walls sills are laid, having joists let into them, as for laying a floor, on which laths, about one and a half inches wide, are nailed, leaving open spaces between them three fourths of an inch, over which a thin linen cloth is spread and nailed at the edges to the sills. A board about twelve inches wide is set up on each side of the kiln, on the inner edge of the sill, to form a bin to receive the hops. Fifty pounds, after they are dry, is all such a kiln will hold at once. The larger the stones made use of in the construction of the kiln the better, as it will give a more steady and dense heat. The inside of the kiln should be well plastered with mortar to make it air-tight. Charcoal is the best fuel. Heat the kiln well before putting on the hops; keep a steady and regular heat while drying. Hops must not remain in bulk long after being picked, as they will heat and spoil. Do not stir them while drying. After they are thoroughly dry, remove them into a dry room, and lay in heaps, and not stir unless they are gathering dampness that will change their color; then spread them. This will only occur when they have not been properly dried. They are bagged by laying cloth into a box, so made that it can be removed, and give opportunity to sew up the bag while in the press. The hops are pressed in by a screw. In bulk they will sweat a little, which will begin to subside in about eight days, at which time they should be bagged. If they sweat much and begin to change their color, they must be dried before bagging. The best size for bags is about two hundred and fifty pounds' weight, in a bag about five feet long. Common tow-cloth or Russia-hemp bags are best. Extensive hop-growers build houses over the kiln, that they may be able to use them in wet weather. In this case, keep the doors open as much as possible without letting in the rain. Dried without sufficient air, their color is changed, and their quality and market-value injured. These houses are made much larger than the kiln, in many instances, for the convenience of storing and bagging the hops when dry; in this case, tight partitions should separate the storerooms from the kiln, to avoid dampness from the drying hops.
The form of manuring recommended is contrary to the old practice of putting a little manure only in the hill: that practice exposed vines to decay and destruction by worms, and this does not; our system also produces hops equal to new land.
HORSE.
This noble animal is in general use, and everywhere highly prized. By the last census, we see that there are two thirds as many horses as cows in the United States—4,335,358 horses, and over six millions of cows. But, valuable as is the horse, he suffers much ill treatment and neglect from his master. To give a history of the horse, the various breeds of different countries, and the efforts to improve them, would be interesting, did it fall within the limits of our design. The patronage of the kings and nobility of England has done much to elevate the horse to his present standard of excellence. It has now become the custom for intelligent gentlemen in rural districts, in all enlightened countries, to give much attention to the improvement of horses. Unfortunately, some of that enthusiasm is perverted to the channel of horse-racing, a practice alike injurious to horses and the morals of men. A few brief hints are all we have space for, where a volume would be interesting and useful. The farmer should exercise constant care to improve the breed of his horses: it pays best to raise good horses. This depends upon the qualities of the dam and sire, and upon proper feed and care. This is a subject that farmers should carefully study from books and from their own observation. The most important matter in raising horses, is care in working and feeding. Nineteen out of twenty of all sick horses are made so by bad treatment. The prevention of disease is better than cure. Steady, and even hard work, will not injure a horse that is well and regularly fed. But a few moments of crowding a horse's speed, or of an unnatural strain on his strength, may ruin him. Let it always be remembered that it is speed, and not heavy loads, that most injures a horse. A mile an hour too fast will soon run down your horse. A horse fed with grain, or watered, when warm, is liable to be foundered; and if not so fed as actually to be foundered, he will gradually grow stiff. Horses are liable to take cold by any unreasonable exposure to the weather, in the same circumstances as men, and the effects on health and comfort are very similar. A horse having become warm by driving, should never stand a minute without a blanket. When a man goes from a heated room, or in a perspiration, into inclement weather, he takes cold the moment the cold or storm strikes him: in a few moments the effects on the pores of the body are such that there is no particular exposure. It is so with a horse. He takes cold when you are only going to allow him to "stand but a minute," and during that time you leave him uncovered.
If you are under the necessity of doing an unusual day's work with a horse, do not feed him heavily on that day. Unusual feed the day before and the day after will do him good; but on the day of excessive work it injures him. Never feed horses too much; they will often eat one third more than is good for their health. Keep the bottom of the trough in which you feed your horses grain, plastered over with a mixture of equal parts of salt and ashes, that they may eat a little of it when they please. When the water of your horse becomes thick and yellowish, or whitish, give him a piece of rosin as large as a walnut, pulverized and put in his grain. If a horse has the heaves, give him no hay or oats; corn, ground or soaked, should be his only grain, and green corn-fodder in summer, and cornstalks, cut fine, with a little warm water on them, mixed with meal, should constitute his only food. All except a few of the most confirmed and long-standing cases of heaves are entirely relieved by this course of feeding, and that relief is permanent as long as the feed is continued, and it frequently effects a cure so radical that the disease will not return on a change of food. To bring up horses that have had hard usage and poor feed, and to secure growth in colts, feed them milk. The milk of a butter-dairy is not more profitably used in any other way, than fed to horses and colts. Give them no water for two or three days, and they will readily learn to drink all the sour, thick milk you will give them. Colts will grow faster on milk than on any other food.
Horses should be often rubbed down and kept clean, and when put in the stable wet, they should be rubbed dry. It is very essential to the health of a horse that he have pure air. Stables in this country are usually airy enough. But if the stable be tight, it should be well ventilated. The gases from a wet stable floor are injurious. Disinfecting agents are good remedies; a little plaster-of-Paris spread over a stable-floor is very useful. These brief directions, followed, will prevent most of the diseases to which horses are subject; or in case a horse be attacked, he will have the disease lightly, as temperate men do epidemics.
HORSERADISH.
This is regarded a healthy condiment, especially in the spring of the year. Grated, with a little vinegar, it may be eaten with any food you choose. Small shavings of the root are esteemed in mangoes. When steeped in vinegar for two weeks, it is said effectually to remove freckles from the face. Any pieces of the roots will grow in any good garden-soil. Larger and better roots may be produced, by trenching the bed two feet deep, and putting in the bottom, ten inches of good manure, and planting selected roots, about six inches deep.