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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1889)
WEST SHORE. canoes arc puddled up the streams to tho vicinity of the field of labor, and are hauled out of tho water up on the bank, where tho family camp in pitched and do mestic arrangements of the most primitive clmracter made for a sojourn of a few weeks. Kvery member of an Indian household who is not cleanest and most industrious pickers, Mug steadier and indulging in less talk and frolicking than their white co-laborers. When the boxes are full they are gathered up and loaded upon a long wagon rack, and are drawn to the drying house, which is generally a two-story structure, absolutely incapacitated by being of too tender or too I having a sharp, four-sided roof, with a ventilator at the tough an age, goes into the fields and lalsirs for the common fund. An cxH'rt hop picker will fill three boxes in a day, but the average is aUmt two Ikixcs to the hand, the price paid being tl.(X) per box. In work ing the pickers either stand or sit as they choose, and the latter is the most common osition assumed. The vines are cut near the ground and then the jnile is loos ened from tho ground and lowered with the vine, sup Mirtcd a short distance from the ground urnm a frame. Alxmt three pickers to the acre is the average of hands em- . f(f .1 1 Tl ..II.. JWtm I- .. ATi.?f?VMi nioyeu. mere ore iiuijr o,uw imimn -J"V at work in Puyallup valley, of whom four-fifths are Indians, who are the r L '. .3 i V j'' i ft ' . -r W 1 apex. I he hops are taken In at a uoor on the sccoutl floor, and art spread out to a depth of three feel Uii a floor consisting of slats covered with hurlii. A tire is maintained licucath them and the heat mssea up through the ho and out of the ventilator at the top From twenty to thirty hours are consumed in drying one "llooriug," the hops losing alxmt three fourths their weight in the process. The last thing done Is to hum a few jHiunds of sulphur under them, the fumes from which Impart to the dull lio that golden yellow which makes their apM'arance so attractive. They are then carefully raked into an adjoining room to cool, alter which they are lowered to the lloor ImIow for haling. IV til recently haling was done by hand, but now most growers use horse iower with their baling machines. The hale, which Is generally four feet long and iilinut two feet square on the ends, and weighs from 1 h. to '.IK I Niunds, is encased In bur laps to protect the hops In han dling. Care has always to l taken hot to li t the bales rome in contuet with moisture, or else the ho will begin to " work," mid Ini-oiiic damaged gissls. It cimts about nine cents a pound to raie and cure h. and anything alove that amount rixelvfl by the grower Is profit Prices are low and llurtimtiug this s'ftMn, ranging from ten to """""" "1 fourteen cents In hH'J the phe- mm.m,mm n -mm J Uollielisl prlee llf 1 1 Kl 't IUIld was nit ivi'-l, but twenty cuts U Uiut the average, at whii h rate hop growing Is an enormously pmllubl busim-ss, mtting als.ut iJiMlu the a re. A spe. l train of eighteen rr left tle val ley by the Northern IVillc on the righti'rnlh of the month, ciniveying a consignnieiil of 1 ,IW I )!, or .f,iiil j.iunds, of new hoi direct to Umdoit. Hix tet of thn rant Were loaded by K. M ker A Co., the most extensive growers in the tallry. csr r wr rn