I intend to plant in the spring. I again replenish the yard, giving me, with the proceeds of my hog yard, from 100 to 150 loads more in the following spring. In addition, I have for two years past composted, in the field adjoining my peat bog, from 75 to 100 loads of peat (thrown from the pit in summer or autumn) with sea and rockweed, or ashes and animal manure, which I esteem of equal value to barn-yard manure. I estimate the value of a cord, or four ox cart loads of barn yard manure composted as above, at from $4 to $5. We esteem the value of this for a corn crop and the improvement of land higher than pure animal manure."

I give one more extract from a farmer of Berkshire County. He says: "I have used swamp muck for a number of years past with good results, by mixing it with yard and stable manures in the proportion of one-third to one-half muck, and consider it worth one dollar per load to use for agricultural purposes on soils that are a mixture of loam and gravel."

The testimony is uniformly in favor of composting muck with other manures. Its power of absorbing valuable liquid and gaseous substances is very considerable; and this makes it an excellent substance to mix with guano when the latter is to be used as a top dressing. The importance of a free use of dry swamp muck as an absorbent of the liquid manures of the barn and stable can hardly be over-estimated. The loss throughout the State from the neglect and consequent waste of these rich manures, which, with a little care, might all be saved, is almost incredible. The attention of farmers was but lately called to this subject; but the value of these substances is acknowledged by some, and efforts are now made to save them by means of the use of muck and loam, either properly composted in the barn cellar, or supplied daily to the stalls of cattle. No judicious farmer should neglect to save all such substances as tend to increase the value and productiveness of his lands. It is poor economy and bad calculation to buy concentrated manures, or to buy any manures abroad, till every thing of the kind is saved at home.

From what has been said, we may infer that good dry swamp muck is worth on an average from $1.25 to $1.50 per cord; that it is best on light, loamy, sandy, or gravelly soils; and

that it is valuable as a compost with barn-yard manures, or

with guano.

The introduction of improved machinery for farming purposes marks the progress of agriculture, and foreshadows the advantages to be expected hereafter from the application of science to this art. Implements are now constructed on strictly scientific principles. Among those lately introduced, by way of experiment, is the mowing machine. About one hundred and fifty of these machines have been used in this State the last year. There is no doubt that such improvements will be made in it as to make it exceedingly valuable, and indeed, on many farms, quite indispensable.

CULTURE OF THE HOP.

I have very often been applied to for information respecting the cultivation of hops. The inquiry upon this subject has become so great, and the sources of information are so few, on account, probably, of its being a local product, that it seems important to state the results of my studies and observation upon it. Having spent the early part of my life in the immedi ate vicinity of a hop-growing district, and having subsequently, in the course of my investigations, connected with official duties, obtained many statistics and facts from successful growers in this Commonwealth, I have determined to imbody them in the form of a report upon this crop.

Its Natural History.-The hop (humulus) is a hardy, herbaceous plant, of the nettle order, constituting a genus by itself, under the name of Lupulus. The common American name for it is from the old Saxon hoppan, "to climb," and the generic botanical term, humulus, is from the Latin humus, fresh earth, and applied to it on account of the natural habits of the plant, when left to itself, of creeping along the ground. Its specific botanical name, Lupulus, was given it by the Romans, because when growing among the willows it twined around and choked them, proving as destructive as the wolf. The old English name signified the "bane of the wolf."

The male and female plants are distinct from each other, the cup of the former having five stamens or leaves, that of the

latter only one large oval leaf. The root generally sends up many rough, flexible stems, which twine from left to right around poles or upright supports to a height varying from ten to twentyfive feet. The leaves are indented like a saw, shaped like a heart, opposite to each other, and growing on small stalks, rough, or covered with prickles like a nettle, and of a dark-green color, sometimes entire, and sometimes divided. The flowers of the male plant grow in clusters a little like currant blossoms, with a calyx of five oblong sepals, and five short capillary filaments, and upright double-celled anthers. The flowers of the female plant are cones, strobiles, or catkins, of many scales, and of an ovate form, pendulous, and slightly resembling the cones of a pine. They are covered with a fine yellow powder called Lupuline. The scales are of a pale green, overlapping each other. It has two downy styles, shaped like an awl, and spreading. The stigmas are simple. Each enlarged dry scale has a single seed attached to its base, round, and of a brownish color, having a sharp rim. The blossoms of the hop are bitter, and slightly narcotic, and are the most valuable part.

But one variety of the male plant is known; while several distinct varieties of the female are well known, and have been cultivated from remote antiquity. The chief varieties known and cultivated in England are the golding hop, known and cultivated here also; the Canterbury grape hop, also grown on rich soils in the county of Kent; the Mayfield grape hop, grown on nearly all kinds of good soil; the golden-tips hop; the Farnham, celebrated in some sections for its superior qualities; and the Flemish redbine, a coarse and hardy variety, more nearly approaching the wild plant than the others. The grape hop is common here.*

There is a plant improperly called the "tree hop," the fruit of which is sometimes used as a substitute for the true hop. This is the Ptelea trifoliata of Linnæus. It is the Shrubby Trefoil, sometimes called Swamp Dogwood, or Stinking Ash. It is a beautiful shrub or small tree, with greenish-white flowers, growing in clusters, and resembling the common hop. Its name is derived from a Greek word, signifying to fly, from the resemblance of its fruit to that of the elm, being furnished with a thin covering like a wing. Its bark and foliage are bitter and aromatic, acting as a tonic. It has but few branches, brittle, and filled with pith. Its bark is of a beautiful, smooth purple. It may be easily propagated by cuttings, seeds or layers. It is an inferior substitute for hops, though often used for yeast and other purposes.

Its History as a cultivated Plant.-The hop grows wild in Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, England, and in Massachusetts, where it is indigenous. It is probably indigenous also to Europe, though supposed by some naturalists to have been brought there by the Goths at a very early period. It was known, probably, to the Greeks and Romans. It became more known as a cultivated plant in modern Europe after the 8th and 9th centuries. It was cultivated in Germany in the 14th century, and introduced into England, but not much cultivated, previous to 1524. The prejudices against this plant were at first very great, and Henry VIII. ordered the brewer not to put hops into the ale. Its cultivation was afterwards encouraged by acts of Parliament. One of the first works published on this subject was, "A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden" in 1578. The cultivation of hops in Sweden was regarded of so great importance that every farmer was required by law to have at least forty poles of them; and in failure of this he was punished, unless he could show that his land was not capable of producing them; and the picking of them before they were ripe was followed by a penalty. The cultivation was brought to considerable perfection there as early as the close of the 17th century. This plant was introduced into Massachusetts at a very early date. "Hop rootes" were ordered by the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1628.

The cultivation of this crop in Massachusetts has grown up for the most part within the last seventy years, and its history is so interesting as to merit a more extended notice than my present limits allow.

In 1789 some eight or ten of the principal growers of hops met at the house of Samuel Jaques, Esq., one of the largest hop growers of Wilmington, for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of hops grown in the State. The quantity was so limited, and the number of growers so few, that those present could name both the growers and the quantity each raised throughout the whole country. Previous to that time only about thirty thousand pounds had been grown in any one year in this State, and by far the larger part of those was raised in Wilmington and a few adjoining towns in Middlesex county.

The

The mode of picking and drying was very defective. hops were picked in clusters, stems and leaves often thrown in, and the drying was done by wood; so that, when taken from the kiln, they were "brown as a leg of bacon, and about as much smoked."

Colonel Samuel Jaques, who may justly be called the founder of this business, was the first in the country to dry hops with charcoal, in September, 1791. At the suggestion of Robert Laird, a Scotch brewer, who afterwards lived many years in Newburyport, young Jaques, then a lad of fifteen, but already sufficiently advanced to be intrusted, in the absence of his father, with the responsibility of overseeing the harvesting of the crop, gave directions to have the hops picked entirely free from stems and leaves, sent at once to a neighbor's for a load of charcoal, and produced the most beautiful kiln of hops that had ever been dried in America. He was not only astonished himself, but astonished all the neighbors. When his father returned on Saturday night, and beheld what had been done, he could hardly restrain his joy and delight, for a new era had begun in his favorite pursuit.

The superiority of this mode of picking and drying was so apparent that in 1792 it was pretty generally adopted, and has been practised to this day; for, as this article became valuable from these improved processes, the demand increased, doubled and tripled, the culture extended, and the slips or cuttings to form new plantations soon rose to exorbitant prices.

It was the universal custom at that time to pack the hops in round bags, without any uniformity in length or size, by treading them down with the feet in the rude manner still practised in England. The consequence was, that the tops were bruised and broken, causing great loss in strength and value by evaporation of the essential juices of the plant, its most valuable properties, to say nothing of the impossibility of packing closely for transportation. Young Jaques, leaving his father after the harvest of the crop of 1797, came to Charlestown, and soon commenced packing hops in square bales, by means of screws. The superiority of this mode was so apparent that it soon became general.

But difficulties often arose among merchants, from the fact