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Hops, Madder

The best method of drying hops is with charcoal on an oast or kiln, covered with hair-cloth of the same form and fashion that is used for drying malt. The kiln ought to be square, and may be ten, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen feet across at the top, where the hops are laid, as the plantation requires and the room will allow. There ought to be a due proportion between the height and breadth of the kiln, and the steddle where the fire is kept, viz., if the kiln be twelve feet square on the top, it ought to be nine feet high from the fire, and the steddle ought to be six feet and a half square, and so proportionable in other dimensions.

The hops must be spread even upon the oast, a foot thick or more, if the depth of the curb will allow it; but care is to be taken not to overload the oast if the hops are green or wet. The oast ought to be first warmed with a fire before the hops are laid on, and then an even steady fire must be kept under them, it must not be too fierce at first lest it scorch them, nor must it be suffered to sink or slacken, but rather be increased, till the hops are nearly dried, lest the moisture or sweat which the fire has raised, fall back or discolor them.

When they have lain about nine hours they must be turned, and in two or three hours more they may be taken off. It may be known when they are well dried, by the brittleness of the stalks and the easy falling off of the hop-leaves.

To bag Hops.

As soon as the hops are taken off the kiln, lay them in a room for three weeks or a month to cool, give, and toughen; for if they are bagged immediately they will powder, but if they lie awhile (and the longer they lie the better, provided they are covered close with blankets to secure them from the air), they may be bagged with more safety, as not being liable to be broken to powder in treading; and this will make them bear treading the better, and the harder they are trodden the better they will keep.

To dress Hops.

When the ground is dug in January or February, the earth about the hills and very near them, should be taken away with the spade. About the end of February, if the hops were planted the spring before, or if the ground be weak, they ought to be dressed in dry weather; but if the ground be strong and in perfection, the middle of March will be a good time; and if it is apt to produce over-rank binds, the beginning of April may be soon enough. Then having with an iron picker cleared away all the earth out of the hill, so as to clean the stock to the principal roots, with a sharp knife cut off all the shoots which grew with the binds the last year; and also all the young suckers, that none may be left to run in the alley and weaken the hill. It will be proper to cut one part of the stock lower than the other, and also to cut that part low that was left highest the preceding year. In dressing those hops that have been planted the year before, cut off both the dead tops and the young suckers which have sprung up from the sets, and also cover the stocks with fine earth, a finger's length in thickness.

To pole Hops.

About the middle of April the hops are to be poled; when the shoots begin to sprout up, the poles must be set to the hills deep in the ground, with a square iron picker or crow, that they may the better endure the wind; three poles are sufficient for one hill. These should be placed as near the hill as possible, with their bending tops turned outwards from the hill, to prevent the binds from entangling; and a space between two poles ought to be left open to the south, to admit the sunbeams. To tie Hops.

The buds that do not clasp of themselves to the nearest pole when they are grown to three or four feet high, must be guided to it by the hand, turning them to the sun, whose course they will always follow. They must be bound with withered rushes, but not so close as to hinder them from climbing up the pole. This continue to do till all the poles are furnished with binds, of which two or three are enough for a pole; and all the sprouts and binds that there are no occasion for, are to be plucked up; but if the ground is young, then none of these useless binds should be plucked up, but should be wrapped up together in the middle of the hill.

To gather Hops.

About the beginning of July hops begin to blow, and will be ready for gathering the last of August. A judgment may be made of their ripeness by their strong; scent, their hardness, and the brownish color of their seed. When by these tokens they appear to be ripe they must be picked with all the expedition possible, for if at this time a storm of wind should come, it would do them great damage, by breaking the branches and bruising and discoloring the hops; and it is very well known that hops, being picked green and bright, will sell for a third more than those which are discolored.

To cultivate the Madder Plant.

The ground is ploughed deep in autumn, and again in March, and then laid up in ridges eighteen inches asunder, and about a foot high. About the beginning of April the ground is opened where the old roots are planted, and the side shoots taken off, which are transplanted immediately upon the new ridges, at about a foot distance, where they remain two seasons; at Michaelmas, when the tops of the plants are decayed, the roots are taken up.

This method of planting in ridges is only necessary in wet land. If all the horizontal roots are destroyed from time to time, it will cause the large downright roots to be much bigger, in which the goodness of this plant chiefly consists. After the roots, the only parts of the madder used by dyers, are taken up, they are kiln-dried, and then reduced to powder by a mill. Previously to the grinding they are carefully assorted.

The fine quality of madder is distinguished by its being of a bright, lively, light color, well ground, without any coarse parts proceeding from the peelings. Fresh is always more valuable than old madder. It should be kept close to prevent the access of air, as its virtue evaporates when exposed.

Madder is principally cultivated in Holland, Germany, and France, especially the former place, where it grows in greater abundance than in any other part of the world. The turkey madder root is principally cultivated about Smyrna. This plant may be propagated either by offsets or seeds. On a light thin soil the culture cannot be carried on to any profit; that soil in which the plant delights is a rich sandy loam, three feet or more in depth.

The ground being first made smooth, is divided into beds four feet wide, with alternate alleys half as broad again as the beds. In each alley is a shallow channel for irrigating the whole field, etc., that that part of the alley that is not otherwise engaged may be sown with legumes. The madder seed is sown broadcast in the proportion of from twentyfive to thirty pounds per acre about the end of April. In a fortnight or three weeks the young plants begin to appear, and from this time to the month of September care must be taken to keep the ground well watered and free from weeds. If the plants are examined in autumn they will be found to be surrounded with small yellow offsets at the depth of two inches, and early in September the earth from the alleys is to be dug out and laid over the plants of madder to the height of two or three feet. With this the first year's operation finishes. The second year's work begins in May with giving the beds a thorough weeding; and care must be taken to supply them with plenty of water during summer. In September the first crop of seed will be ripe, at which time the stems of the plants may be mown down, and the roots covered a few inches with earth taken as before out of the alleys.

The weeding should take place as early as possible in the spring of the third year; and the crop, instead of being left for seeds, may be cut three times during summer for green fodder, all kinds of cattle being remarkably fond of it. In October the roots are taken up, the offsets are carefully separated, and immediately used to form a new plantation; and the roots, after being dried, are sold either without further preparation or ground to a coarse powder and sprinkled with an alkaline lye. The roots lose four-fifths of their weight in drying, and the produce of an acre is about 2000 pounds of dry salable madder.

Use of Madder.

The principal use of madder is in dyeing. It gives out its color both to water and rectified spirits; the watery tincture is of a dark dull red, the spirituous of a deep bright one. It imparts to woollen cloth, prepared with alum and tartar, a very durable, though not a very beautiful red dye. As it is the cheapest of all red drugs that give a durable color, it is the principal one commonly made use of for ordinary stuffs. Sometimes its dye is heightened by the addition of Brazil-wood, and sometimes it is employed in conjunction with the dearer reds, as cochineal, for demi-scarlets and demi-crimsons. Madder-root is sometimes employed in medicine as an emmenagogue. When the madder is given to animals with their food it produces a curious phenomenon, namely, tinging their bones with red. The bones of young pigeons will be thus tinged of a rosecolor in twenty-four hours, and of a deep scarlet in three days; but the bones of adult animals will be a fortnight in acquiring a rose-color.

Best Method of Hay-making.

Instead of allowing the hay to lie, as usual in most places, for some days in the swath after it is cut, never cut hay but when the grass is quite dry, and then make the gatherers follow close upon the cutters; put it up immediately into small cocks about three feet high each, and of as small a diameter as they can be made to stand with; always giving each of them a slight kind of thatching, by drawing a few handsful of the hay from the bottom of the cock all round and laying it lightly upon the top, with one of the ends hanging downwards. This is done with the utmost ease and expedition; and when once in that state the hay is, in a great measure, out of danger; for unless a violent wind should arise immediately after the cocks are put up, nothing else can hurt the hay; as no rain, however violent, can penetrate into these cocks but for a very little way; and if they are dry put up they never sit together so closely as to heat, although they acquire, in a day or two, such a degree of firmness as to be in no danger of being overturned by wind after that time, unless it blows a hurricane.

In these cocks allow the hay to remain until, upon inspection, the farmer judges it will keep in pretty large tramp-cocks (which is usually in a week or two, according as the weather is more or less favorable), when two men, each with a longpronged pitchfork, lift up one of these small cocks between them with the greatest ease, and carry them one after another to the place where the tramp-cock is to be built; and in this manner proceed over the field till the whole is finished.

Mode of Hay-making in England.

The clover is cut, and after it has lain four or five days in the swath, till it is sufficiently dry, the hay-maker, with a rake, rolls up a sufficient quantity to form a ripple, which is set up in the form of a cone. Taking a few of the longest straws he twists them round the top, which forms the point of the cone, keeps the ripple compact, and shoots off the rain. In taking up the clover from the swath and forming the ripple, it is necessary to keep the upper or dry part inwards: by that means it is much sooner dry, and in a fit state for the stack. It is generally necessary for clover to remain five or six days in the ripple before it is put into the stack; but that depends on the state of the weather. There is no occasion to untie the ripples. The method of rippling is not so expensive as cocking; it is much superior both in wet and dry seasons-not so liable to be injured by the wet-much sooner dry, and of course of a better quality and more nourishing for cattle. Each ripple will weigh, when dry, about four or five pounds. They should not be made too large. Except where meadow grass is very long it would not be practicable to ripple it.

The practice of rippling is simple, attended with little trouble or expense, and whenever tried will recommend itself.

To manage Cut Grass for Hay.

Grass, when cut for hay, ought to be quickly raked, in order that its powers may neither be exhausted by the sun nor dissipated by the air.

In the first stage small cocks are preferable, and on after days these may be gathered into large ones or hand-ricks, by which method the hay is equally made and properly sweetened. After standing eight or ten days in these ricks, according to the nature of the weather, hay may be carted home and built in stacks of sufficient size for standing through the winter months.

Buckwheat.

This thrives among mountains better than on lowlands. Sow in July. It grows ripe with frost; the seeds grow black after a frost.

Importance of Straw in Husbandry.

This is a subject that has not always been so much attended to as its importance deserves.

Though many useful observations on straw are occasionally introduced in agricultural writings, and though its value, as the basis of future crops, is fully admitted by every intelligent farmer, yet the subject has seldom been professedly treated of at any length: we shall endeavor, therefore, to compress the most important particulars connected with it under the following heads: 1. The weight of straw produced on an average of the different crops of grain and pulse per statute acre. 2. The value of the different kinds of straw, and -