time very extensively modify his more or less fanciful views upon 

 delicacy of colour of hop samples. 



Growers not unfrequently find it more to their pecuniary interest 

 to deliberately break up their produce after drying, so as to expose 

 more of the clean interior of the hop, especially when the crop has- 

 become more or less weathered and discoloured on the outside. 



Whatever the intrinsic merit of the hop may be, a discoloured 

 exterior reduces its value in the eyes of the authorities who act for 

 the brewers, very much more than does the defect of brokenness of 

 sample ; this the grower knows by experience, and cannot be blamed 

 for acting upon the knowledge until the value of a whole sample is 

 more appreciated. The presence of many loose " strigs " and broken 

 bracts are sufficient indication of a badly mutilated growth, and should 

 be carefully allowed for in estimating the value of samples. 



A microscopic examination of the glands of the hop helps us 

 readily to distinguish good from bad hops. Their colour and form are 

 different in good fresh samples from those of old or damaged ones, 

 In fresh well -managed hops the glands are a pale golden yellow colour, 

 with slightly wrinkled surfaces, and oily contents which readily ooze 

 out when pressed on a microscopic slide or rubbed on paper. With 

 age they become more wrinkled and darker in colour, assuming finally 

 a deep, reddish, orange colour ; in samples dried at too high a 

 temperature similar changes in shape and colour are noticeable. The 

 resinous substances present in the glands lose much of their oily 

 sticky character, after being kept a considerable time. Good fresh 

 samples of individual hops if rich in lupulin stic'k together, and only 

 slowly open out again when pressed tightly in the hand, although as- 

 a whole a properly dried sample is very elastic and springy when 

 pressed. 



A good hop should show the smallest amount possible of material 

 not lupulin. Hence the size and thickness of the " strig," petals, and 

 seeds should be reduced to a minimum, and only the smallest leaves 

 of the hop plant should be permissible in commercial samples. The 

 petals should be arranged at very close intervals along the " strig" or 

 axis of the cone, and the axis should be fine and slender. Varieties 



