

HUM 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



HUM 



715 





acquire'a garlic-like smell, and ought to be picked with the 

 greatest expedition. This disorder appears to be incident to 

 particular lands, especially those of a light poor quality, and 

 therefore is in all probability a natural decay, and not a blight. 

 Dr. Withering's observations on the honey-dew deserve to 

 be introduced to the notice of planters. He says, if the 

 Hop-yards were covered with stones, the plants would be less 

 liable to suffer from the honey-dew and otter-moth, for the 

 honey-dew is the excrement of a species of louse ; but these 

 insects seldom increase so as to endanger the plant, unless 

 it is in a weak condition ; and the larvse of the otter-moth at 

 the roots, first occasion the plant to be sickly. Now when 

 the Hops grow wild in stony places, and fissures of rocks, 

 where the moth cannot penetrate to deposit its eggs, the Hop 

 is never known to suffer from the honey-dew. Admitting 

 this view of the disease, might not the practice of smoking 

 the fruit plantations on the first alarm of a blight, as prac- 

 tised in some fruit countries, be applied here to those of 

 Hops? The other injuries to which they are liable still re- 

 main without a remedy. A free circulation of air through 

 them, and complete draining of the land, are the only alle- 

 viations. The use of the kerf is certainly attended with one 

 disadvantage: the person using it, in some measure defeats 

 the intention of his own labour, as he must, in some degree 

 at least, tread down again the soil he had just loosened ; and 

 often reset a weed which he had just before turned up : but 

 the greater dispatch made with this implement will always 

 secure it a preference before the spade. Uses ofHumulus Lu- 

 pulus. The Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufac- 

 tures, and Commerce, at London, offered premiums in the year 

 1760 for cloths made from Hop-stalks or binds. The year fol- 

 lowing, Mr. Cooksey produced some specimens of cloth, and 

 was of opinion that it would answer very well the purpose of 

 fine sacking and coarse bagging for Hops. He had kept the 

 material too long under water : and found that at the end of six 

 weeks or two months the binds afforded filamenta sufficiently 

 strong and fine for any purpose. In 1791, Mr. John Locket, 

 of Donnington, near Newbury, in Berkshire, had the premium 

 adjudged to him forcloth made from these stalks, or Hop-vines, 

 as they are here called. They were cut in lengths of about two 

 or three feet; put into a boiler in which was some lye that 

 linen had been boiled in for bleaching ; and then boiled till 

 the rind easily separated from the stalk. When cool, they 

 stripped so freely that children might do it; and the yield 

 was great in proportion to the quantity of stalks. The same 

 method was then followed as in working hemp or flax; but 

 it is much more stubborn than either, and therefore not so 

 well adapted for making fine cloth : the fibres are also so 

 united with a very adhesive matter, that they do not easily 

 separate ; but for sacks and cordage, it may certainly be very 

 serviceable. Some of it was hackled, while it was wet soon 

 after it was taken off, yet it did not separate the fibres. 

 Carding seems to work if best, and to make it like cotton. 

 Of the piece of cloth exhibited, the warp was hackled and the 

 woof carded. The Swedes make a strong cloth from the 

 stalks, which must be gathered for this purpose in autumn. 

 The use of Hops for preserving beer, and the cultivation of 

 the plant, were introduced into England from Flanders, in the 

 middle of the sixteenth century. Ground Ivy (see Glechoma 

 Hederacea) was generally used for preserving beer, before 

 the introduction of Hops. Since their introduction, many 

 wholesome plants have undoubtedly been used as succeda- 

 neums when Hops were scarce, and of course exorbitantly 

 dear; as, the roots of Ginger and Gentian ; the seeds of Colo- 

 quinteda; and the herbs of Horehound, Wormwood, Broom; 

 Carduus Benedictus, Centaurea Calatrapa or Star Thistle, 



Marsh Trefoil, or Buck Bean ; the last of which is much 

 recommended as a more wholesome bitter than even that 

 extracted from Hops, in the proportion of only two ounces 

 where a pound of Hops was employed. All brewers, however, 

 are enjoined, under a severe penalty, to use no other bitters 

 than Hops in their malt liquors : but there is evident reason 

 to conclude that this law is of no avail; so much so, indeed, 

 that we fear our readers will ask for what intent we have gone 

 into so long a detail upon an article which bids fair to be 

 wholly excluded from modern breweries. Those who have 

 invested large capitals in the immense breweries of London, 

 Dublin, and other cities, take care to cry out when the Bar- 

 ley and Hop-harvests fall short or fail ; but we wish to know 

 what concern they really have in these articles. The amaz- 

 ing difference between the beverage brewed in families from 

 the materials which the law enjoins the brewers to employ, 

 when used in the same proportions, and with all the advan- 

 tages of preparing larger quantities, and of better apparatus, 

 on the brewers' side, is universally known to be in favour of 

 brewing at home. What then is the cause of an effect so 

 opposite to what the public have a right to expect? The 

 cause has been traced to the employment of foreign, and, we 

 fear, even of noxious drugs. They explore, as Mr. Gifford 

 observes, the East Indies for the Menispermum Coculus, or 

 Coculus Indicus ; this is their substitute for malt. The West 

 Indies furnishes them with Quassia, &c. and Spain with Liquo- 

 rice. These two last might be tolerated, but they are not 

 the proper materials for producing the wholesome beverage 

 which used to regale our forefathers. The former ingredient 

 is used in the East Indies, by pounding the berries into a kind 

 of paste, which, cast into water, intoxicates the fish so that 

 they are caught by the hand. From this circumstance some 

 conclusion may be formed as to its properties and effects 

 when introduced into the human frame. Not content with 

 these, that most abominable of all abominations, Tobacco, is 

 notoriously used as a substitute for the Hop; and green vitriol, 

 with other poisons too numerous to name, are added, to mature 

 the deleterious mixture. Hence it is that the poor mechanic 

 is drawn into habitual inebriation : he cannot slake his thirst, 

 without causing it to return with greater force at very short 

 intervals ; unconscious of the cause, he repeats the draught, 

 and the consequences are disease, and premature, and even 

 sudden, death. Half the apoplexies, says an eminent physi- 

 cian in the British metropolis, arise not so much from drink- 

 ing spirits, as from the noxious ingredients, particularly green 

 vitriol, administered in the malt liquors there consumed. 

 When will the strong arm of power put a stop to these ini- 

 quities ? when will our rulers extend it, to protect the health, 

 morals, and happiness of the community, and arrest the deadly 

 ravages of those unprincipled men, who wallow in ill-gotten 

 wealth for a few years, and then bequeath immense revenues 

 for their profuse descendants to scatter to the winds? 

 Medical Properties. A decoction of the roots of Hops, from 

 one to two ounces, or an extract from them, to the quantity 

 of twenty or thirty grains, is said to be sudorific, answering 

 the purpose of Sarsaparilla. Both these and the strobiles 

 have a balsamic principle, and are thought to be serviceable 

 in removing obstructions, correcting the viscidity of the 

 lymph, opening the pores of the skin, and cleansing the kid- 

 neys. The young shoots are eaten early in the spring as 

 Asparagus, and are sold under the name of Hop-tops, which 

 are said to be diuretic, and good for the scurvy, taken b> 

 infusion. Hill says, that a decoction of fresh-gathered Hops 

 is good against the jaundice ; and adds, that the powder of 

 Hops dried in an oven has been often known to cure agues, 

 but admits that upon this last there is no absolute dependence. 



