Today in 1938, US Patent 2114727 A was issued, an invention of Edouard Thys, for his “Hop Picking Machine.” There’s no Abstract, but in the description states the following, at least part of it, because it’s a long application:

This invention relates to hop picking machines ing between the rows of vines atA a slow speed. and particularly to a portable machine to permit The machine contains a main feeding and picking picking of hops in the field where they are grown. unit and separating and cleaning units.

The picking of hops by means of machinery is picked and cleaned hops are sacked and hauled to now a comparatively old art, as machine picking the dry kilns, while all waste material, such as the has been in continuous use on a comparatively picked vines, leaves, stems, etc., is left in the field large scale in California and other States, at least as the machine advances.