BOM 



HORIZON. 



708 



TW suckers form an agreeable vegetable for the table, drened like 

 asparagus. The earth ii pressed round the rooU, and the out part* 

 covered w at to exclude the air. A pole about twelve feet long U 

 then firmly stuck in the ground near the planU ; to thi the bine* are 

 led and tied aa they shoot, till they have taken hold of it. If by any 

 accident the bine leaves the pole, it should be carefully brought back 

 to it. and tied till U takes hold again. A stand ladder should be at 

 band to do this, when the bine has acquired some height The ground 

 being well hoed and the earth raised round the plauU, the produce thia 

 year will average 4 cwts. per acre, if the season is favourable. 



Some hop-planters plough up or dig the ground before winter ; othera 

 prefer doing it in spring, in order not to hasten the shooting, which 

 weakens the plant*. The name operations of pruning tbe shooU, 

 manuring, and placing poles, which were performed the preceding 

 year, are carefully repeated. Particular attention is p&id to proportion 

 the length of the poles to the probable strength of the bines ; for if 

 the pole be too long, it draws up the bine, and makes it bear less ; if it 

 be too short, the bines entangle when they get beyond the polea, and 

 cause confusion in the picking. In September, the flower containing 

 the seed will be of a fine straw colour, turning to a brown ; it is then 

 in perfection. When it is over ripe, it acquires a darker tint. No 

 time is now lost, and as many hands are procured aa can be set a-pick- 

 ing; great numbers of men and women go out of the towns in tint 

 hopping season, and earn good wages in the hop plantation*. During 

 the picking they sleep in barns and outhouses. In the picking, the 

 poles are taken down, and the stems cut 3 feet from the ground ; if 

 they were cut shorter it would weaken the root, by causing it to bleed. 

 The poles are laid sloping over a frame of strong wood 9 feet long and 

 4 feet wide, supported by legs 3 feet high ; thin a called a bin. A 

 piece of coarse cloth is fixed to this frame by hooks, so as to form t 

 bag, which does not reach the ground. Throo men or women, or four 

 boys or girls, are placed on each side of the bin, and pick the hops 

 from two poles at a time. Where they are very careful of the quality 

 of the hops, as at Karoham, they divide them into three sorts : the 

 green, which are not quite ripe ; the light yellow-brown, which are in 

 perfection ; and the very dark, which are past their prime. Some go 

 even further, and make several qualities according to colour and 

 fragrance : for this purpose there are several baskets. Tbe dew should 

 be off entirely before tht-y begin ; for otherwise the hops might becomo 

 musty, or take too long drying, and lose their fragrance. The hops 

 when picked are dried on a hair cloth in a kiln. When they appear 

 sufficiently dry at bottom they are turned ; it in however thought by 

 some hop-dryers that the tuniing of tbe hops is apt to injure them, 

 and that it is best not to do so ; but in order that the upper part may 

 be dried equally with the lower, a wooden cover lined with tin plates 

 U hud down over the hops on the hair-cloth, to within a few inches of 

 the surface ; this reverberates the heat, and the whole is dried equally. 

 The heat must be carefully regulated, in order that it may not alter 

 the colour. When the leaves of the hops become brittle and rub off 

 easily, they are sufficiently dried. They are then laid in heaps on the 

 floor, where they undergo a very slight heating. As soou as this is 

 observed, they are bayy'J- This is done through a round hole 25 or 80 

 inches in diameter, made in the floor of the loft where the hops are 

 laid. Under this hole is a bag, the mouth of which is drawn through 

 the hole, and kept open by a hoop to which it in made fast. The hoop 

 is somewhat larger than the hole, and the bag remains suspended ; a 

 handful of hops is now put into each corner of the bag, and there tied 

 firmly by a cord. A bushel or two of hops are put into the bag, and a 

 man gets into it to tread tbe hops tight. The bag does nut reach tin- 

 floor below. As the hops are pocked by the feet, more are continually 

 added till the bag is full. It is now taken off the hoop, and tilled up 

 with the hands as tight as possible. The corners are stufied as soon as 

 the mouth is partly sewn up, and tied as the lower corner* were ; when 

 sewed close and tight, it is stored in a dry place till the hops are 

 wanted for sale. 



Tbe crop of the third year will average 8 cwt. per acre. In some 

 very extraordinary seasons, on good land, IS cwt. have been picked 

 per acre : in Flanders, where they manure with urine and the empty- 

 ings of privies, this is not an uncommon produce. 



Rape cakes, malt dust, and woollen rags are used with good success 

 in hop-grounds ; bones have been tried, but with an uncertain result. 



The hop is a dioecious plant, that is, some of the individuals are male 

 plants, and others female, which have respectively flowers of a different 

 construction and of different habitudes. Occasionally monoecious plants 

 are met with, but these few are insufficient to fertilise all the female 

 plants. The hops collected from bines in the neighbourhood of male 

 plants are much larger, richer in aromatic and bitter principles, and a 

 mailer proportion of such hops suffice to hop a given quantity of 

 malt. The male or stamtnifurous flowers, which grow on nt.ilks cjuite 

 distinct from tl, fi-tiulo flowers, prepare the pollen, or fertilising dust, 

 and afterward* wither away, when this dust has encapid from the 

 anthem, and been committed to the air, to be by it conveyed t . the 

 female flowers. The female flowers aro in the form of vtrobuli, or 

 conos, consisting of scales, which have at their base the germ of the 

 future seed, and which have the habit of enlarging, ns the scales of the 

 fir-cones dn, more particularly after the fertilisation of the ovule, or 

 future seed, by a quantity of tin- pollen falling upon it Though t !,. 

 pollen, from its extreme lightness, can be wafted to a considerable 



distance, and some seeds in each cone may be so fertilised, yet it 

 would be well to rear a number of the male plants, among the other*, 

 or along the hedges of the bop-gardens, to ensure the fertilisation of 

 'ill the seeds. But as the farmers observe that the flowers of tbe male 

 (termed, in Kent, seedling, blind, or wild hop ; in Sussex, buck or 

 cook hop) wither away, they generally extirpate them at the digging 

 season, as unfruitful cumberera of the ground. That this U an error 

 may be proved in various ways, but an appeal to the result of an 

 opposite practice is the most convincing. A bushel of hops, collected 

 from plants of the fourth year, raised from seed, weighed 36 pounds, 

 there being male plants near ; a second instance, where the plants were 

 raised from cuttings, weighed 35 pounds; while a bushel, grown in a 

 garden where the male plants were always eradicated, weighed only -'.! 

 pounds. Besides the greater quantity of hops thus obtained, the 

 aroma is much greater, and the strength of the bitter is much greater. 

 After the period when the males have elaborated the pollen, and the 

 Htrobuli of the females begun to enlarge, the males may be cut dv\ n, 

 and the stalks employed to make cordage for hop-bogs against the 

 following harvest In 1760 the Society of Arts awarded premiums for 

 cloth made from the hop-bine. (Lance's 'Golden Farmer,' London, 

 1831.) 



The poles are an expensive article ; those of chestnut are the most 

 dur.iMc. and also the dearest They should be put into a shed during 

 tbe winter : where this cannot be done, they are placed on end in the 

 form of a cone, leaning against each other. If the top of these cones 

 had a cap of thatch, it would greatly protect them fn>m the weather : 

 and it has been recommended to soak them in a solution of corrosive 

 sublimate, according to Kyau's patent 



Besides the use of hops in brewing, they produce a bitter infusion 

 and a tincture which are valuable in medicine for complaints in the 

 stomach. 



HOKARY (Astronomy). The horary motion of the sun or a planet 

 is the arc which it describes in one hour, or the angle which that aro 

 , uliirnds at the eye of the spectator. 



HORDEIN. A substance extracted from barley, but which has 

 been proved to be merely a mixture of starch and cellulose with a 

 nitrogenous body. 



HOBDEUM DISTICHON (Linn.), Medical Property* of. The 

 common summer barley is the kind directed in the Pharmacopoeia to 

 be used, but any of the oner sorts can be employed. Barley-water is 

 either simple or compound : the former is merely a solution of the 

 principles of the barley in boiling water; the latter has liquorice- root, 

 figs, and raisins added. Both forma are demulcent and somewhat 

 nutritious, and are useful in the treatment of mild cases of catarrh, 

 or when acrid purgatives are taken, or when poisons have been swal- 

 lowed. Barley is however an article of common consumption, either 

 as an ingredient in soup or broth, particularly in Scotch broth, or as 

 bread. It differs in some respect from wheat, in possessing less pro- 

 teinaceous matter, and in having considerable bitterness in the husk. 

 Farther, its starch is less soluble in water, and bread made of it is 

 more difficult of digestion. It has, however, the advantage of being 

 slightly laxative, and when it con be digested is a very pn>|*-r article 

 of diet for persons subject to habitual constipation. With a \ 

 keep the bowels regular in infants, it sometimes forms as large as a 

 fourth ]uirt of some of the prepared infanta' food. 



HORIZON (Aftfur, bounding). The physical horizon is the apparent 

 circle by which the spectator's view is bounded when iu- is upon 

 and uninterrupted plain, such as the surface of the sea. It differs from 



the astronomical horizon in two points i firstly, because the physical 

 horizon dipt, as it is called, or is not at the same level as the eye ; and 

 secondly, because the astronomical horizon always supposes the spec- 



