Introduced to Wisconsin in 1852 by Jesse Cottington, hop culture in this area reached its peak in 1866–67, when it was called the greatest primary hop district in the United States. In 1867, with hops selling for 50 cents a pound, thousands of pickers worked in the fields, merchants sold luxury goods, and farmers built larger homes and drove carriages drawn by blooded horses. The boom was short-lived: competition and crop disease ended the prosperity in 1868, when farmers were eager to dispose of their hops at 15 cents a pound. During the boom period in August, clusters of yellowish-green hops canopied the land as they climbed the hop-poles, and at harvest time young people from all over the state came to do the picking, passing long working hours with songs such as Barbara Allen, Billy Boy, Lorena, and Listen to the Mocking Bird.