e of the nearest tree, or, in
case the pickers were boarded by the grower, all adjourned to the
largest room in an out-building, where a rural feast was spread with no
niggard hand. Hop-pickers expect to live on the fat of the farmer's
land, and as a rule they are not disappointed. Whole sheep and beeves
vanish like manna before the Israelites in the short three weeks of the
picking season, while gallons of coffee, firkins of butter, barrels of
flour, and sugar by the hundred weight are swallowed up in the capacious
maw of the small army. The nightly hop-dance used to be an indispensable
adjunct of the picking season, much counted upon by the gay throng, but
rather frowned upon, as an occasion of scandal, by staid and proper
seniors.

With the great increase in hop-production during the early 'eighties,
the romance of hop-picking, on many farms, gave place to a picturesque
but undesirable invasion of vagabondage from the large cities. Some
farmers continued to choose their pickers from among the better sort of
young men and maidens of the neighborhood, but many large growers,
requiring a great number of hands for a short season, resorted to the
unemployed of neighboring cities, and the result was an annual
immigration from Albany, Troy, Binghamton, and other cities farther
north, which taxed the capacity of the railways. Among these workers
many were honest and capable, but a large part of them were attracted by
the prospect of three weeks of board and lodging, with an amount of pay
which, if small, was sufficient for a glorious spree. It became the
custom in Cooperstown to augment the village police force during the
hop-picking season, for city thugs were likely to be abroad, and when
the pickers were paid off their revels were apt to become both obnoxious
and dangerous.

Hops will be seen growing in the summer along the shores and hillsides
of Otsego Lake, so long as beer is made; for, aside from the very
limited amount required to leaven bread, and the comparatively small
amount used in druggists' preparations, there is no use for hops except
in the making of beer. But never again will there be in Otsego such
luxuriance of hop-culture as that which developed in the 'eighties
before the Pacific coast learned to compete successfully with the
hop-growers of New York State.

Hop-culture is a gamble which in Otsego county has made fortunes for
some farmers and brought ruin to others. The growth of the product is
singu