Cultivation of Arable Land. Hops. 33 



and advantage in many fituations, as in grafs diftricts, \vhere labourers can be 

 eafily procured to perform the different operations it requires about the harveft 

 feafon, where the produce of grain crops more than fupplies the demands of the 

 inhabitants, and where there are means of providing, due fupplies of manure. 

 But under other circumftances, as from the fibrous nature of its root, the fize of 

 its ftem, the fmallnefs of its leaf, and the quantity of feed which it affords, it 

 cannot but exhauft and impoverifh the land without returning any thing in the 

 way of manure, it mould perhaps feldom be had recourfe to. 



When grown after other crops, thofe of the turnip and potatoe kind are thofe 

 that moft commonly precede it.* 



The cakes produced in the procefs of expreffing the oil from flax-feed arc 

 made ufe of for the purpofe of fattening cattle with great fuccefs, and in con. 

 fequence the price has of late been unufually high. 



A mucilaginous or jelly-like fubftance is alfo prepared from flax-feed, by means 

 of boiling, or the pouring of water in a boiling ftate over the feed when crufhed, 

 which is much employed in the fattening of live ftock. 



Hops. The hop is a plant of the fibrous-rooted perennial kind, which climbs 

 to a confiderable height, under the fupport of poles. There is only one fpecies 

 of this plant in cultivation/! but which has feveral varieties, as the red-bind, the 

 green-bind, the white-bind, &C.+ It is chiefly grown for the fake of the bud and 

 flower, which are employed in the brewing of beer and other malt liquors 

 for the purpofe of imparting an agreeable bitter to them. 



The firft of the above varieties affords a very fmall hop ; but, from its hardy 

 nature, is capable of being cultivated in expofed fituations, and where the climate 

 is cold and not adapted to the other forts. || It is faid to pofTcfs the property of 

 refitting the blaft more effectually than any of the other varieties, often appearing 

 healthy and vigorous, in feafons when the other kinds are greatly infefted with 



* It is remarked by the intelligent writer of the Cerre&ed Report of the State of Agriculture in 

 the County of Perth, that in the law of Scotland a crop of this fort is confidered as a green crop, and 

 that of courfe actions brought againft tenants by proprietors for fowing flax crops inftead ol thofe of 

 the ameliorating kind, would be loft by the latter. It is, therefore, fuggefted that this ftiould ho 

 guarded again!! by having claufes in the leafes fpecifying in a particular manner the quantity of land to 

 be annually cropped with flax. 



f Huwulas luptilus. 



J They are likewife fometimes diftinguiflied into the Flemish, the Canterbury, the Goldings, the 

 rurnlittm, c. 



Modern Agriculture, vol. III. 



VOL. n. Hh 



