URTICACE^. 135 



This may hold good if beer is necessarily made with hops ; but long before this time 

 beer had been brewed in England without hops, other wild plants being added to it. 

 This beverage always went by the name of ale, derived from the northern 61, applied 

 by the Scandinavians to the strong beverages quaffed by the deep-drinking Vikings, 

 brewed either from malt alone or with a mixture of honey, and flavoured with heath 

 tops, germander, and various other aromatic herbs. The controversy as to the 

 use of hops in the manufacture of beer, seems to have waxed hot at the time of their 

 introduction into England. The citizens of London protested in a body against 

 " Newcastle coals in regard of their stench, and hops in regard of their taste." 

 Tusser, in his " Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie," published in 1557, gives 

 sundry directions for the cultivation of hops, and advocates their use. He says: — 



" The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, 

 It strengtheneth drink, and it savoureth malt ; 

 And being well brewed, long kept it will last, 

 And drawing abide — if you draw not too fast." 



Before the close of the sixteenth century th"e hop was cultivated in southern 

 England, and it was generally accepted as an addition to our agriculture. 



The hop plant requires a rich deep soil for its profitable cultivation, and the subsoil 

 should be well drained ; while a southern aspect is supposed to be favourable to a 

 good crop of catkins. The plants are obtained by taking off the young shoots which 

 are thrown up from the old roots, and planting them in beds till they are sufficiently 

 grown for removal to the hop-ground. When the plants attain a sufficient size, 

 poles twelve feet or more in length are stuck near each, and the stems, or " bines," 

 tied to them till they begin to hoist of their own accord. It is curious to observe 

 how every plant invariably winds to the right, and no force is able to change this 

 natural inclination. The first year of planting, the crop is generally small, and not 

 worth gathering ; it improves the second year ; but the third year should find the 

 plants in full bearing. The hop, being dioecious, the fertile and barren flowers being 

 on different plants, it is necessary that some of the stamen-bearing plants should be 

 grown in the neighbourhood of the others. Some growers depend on the pollen being 

 conveyed by wind or insects from the wild plants of the hedges, but it is not safe to 

 trust to this. The hop plant is peculiarly liable to the attacks of insects, and is 

 greatly dependent on the weather, so that the crop is very uncertain and precarious, 

 but under favourable circumstances from eight to fourteen cwt. per acre is yielded, 

 and sometimes even more in good seasons, and where the plants are well manured. 

 The crop usually ripens in September, and then the hops are picked by hand as 

 rapidly as possible, the bines being cut about three feet from the ground, to allow of 

 the poles being pulled up and the plants brought within reach ; they are then generally 

 laid sloping over a frame, beneath which a cloth or sort of cradle is laid to catch the 

 hops as they are picked. The necessity of completing this operation quickly and during 

 fine weather compels the employment of many hands, and the "hopping time," in 

 the counties where they grow, is as busy and cheerful a season as the vintage in more 

 southern climes ; a hop-yard, at the time of harvest, greatly resembling a vineyard 

 during the grape season. 



The hops are dried in a kiln, and afterwards slightly heated by being laid in heaps 

 on a floor; they are then closely packed in canvas bags, or "pockets," for sale. The 

 uncertainty of the crop, the great expense attending its cultui'e, and the heavy excise 

 dtity levied on it, render the occupation of the hop-grower very speculative and pre- 

 carious. He may lose in one year more than he can gain by several favourable seasons. 



