CHAPTER XIII. 



CURING, COOLING AXD BALING HOPS 



OR fuel, charcoal is used in 

 Germany. Its fumes appear 

 to have a beneficial effect on 

 the hops, while its heat is 

 intense, quick, and easily 

 regulated. The German hop 

 market will use no other fuel. 

 In England, anthracite coal 

 is employed, but coke is put 

 on to keep the fires going, 

 and some think it tends to 

 impart the desired softness to hops. In America, dry 

 wood is almost the only fuel in hop kilns. 



One wagon and team can keep a ten-acre yard 

 supplied with boxes and remove the boxes of hops to 

 the kiln platform. Two men are necessary, and these 

 will assist the dr^er to load the kiln when ready, as it 

 requires three men to load. The dryer and a fireman 

 are required to attend the stove and drying, working 

 alternately in shifts of twelve hours, changing at noon 

 and midnight, so that each may have sleep in the night. 



CURING THE HOPS 



Everything being in readiness, the hops are deliv- 

 ered at the kiln loosely in large sacks, if picked in bas- 

 kets, or in 120 bushel hop boxes. The floor cloth is 

 carefully stretched — laj-ounce burlap or a strong 

 duck is used for the carpet or kiln cloth; 

 eight-ounce cloth is too thick and causes too much of 

 the lupulin to fall on the pipes. The men wear sewed 



191 



