who do the heavier part of the work. They are of all ages,
from the tottering old grandmother, careworn wife, and buxom maiden, to
the child in perambulator and baby in arms; and in the bright sunlight,
amid the groves of festooning green columns, form a most orderly,
varied, and picturesque gathering--a regular picnic in fact, judging
from the cheerful look on most of the faces, and the merry laugh that is
occasionally heard.

Mr. Fred Scott, tenant of the farm, of which Lord Hothfield is owner, is
kind enough to go over the hop-garden with us, and describe all the
details. When the hops are ripe (_i. e._ when the seeds are hard) and
ready to be gathered, the pickers swarm on the ground, and a man divides
the "bine" at the bottom of the "pole" by means of a bill-hook--not
cutting it too close for fear of bleeding--leaving the root to sprout
next year, and then draws out the pole, to which is attached the long,
creeping bine, trailing over at top. If the pole sticks too fast in the
ground, he eases it by means of a lever, or "hop-dog" (a long, stout
wooden implement, having a toothed iron projection). "Mind my dog don't
bite you, sir," says one of the men facetiously, as we step over this
rough-looking tool. Women then carry the poles to, and lay them across,
the "bin," a receptacle formed by four upright poles stuck in the ground
and placed at an angle, supporting a framework from which depends the
"bin-cloth," made of jute or hemp, holding from ten to twenty bushels of
green hops, weighing about 1-1/2 lbs. per bushel when dry.

The picking then commences, and nimble fingers of all sizes very soon
strip the poles of the aromatically-smelling ripe hops, the poles being
cast aside in heaps, to be afterwards cleared of the old bines and put
into "stacks" of three hundred each, and used again next season.

The bins, which vary in number according to the size of the hop-garden,
are placed in rows on the margin of the plantation, and usually have ten
"hop-hills" (_i. e._ plants) on each side, and are moved inside the
plantation as the poles are pulled up. Each bin belongs to a "sett" (_i.
e._ family or companionship), consisting of from five to seven persons,
and is taken charge of by a "binman." When the bin is full, a "measurer"
(either the farmer himself or his deputy) takes account of the quantity
of hops picked, and records it in a book to the credit of each working
family. Then the green hops are carted off in "pokes