246 CULTIVATED VEGETABLES. 



vating, gathering, drying and bagging of hops, 

 would be repeating what may be found in every 

 Encyclopedia, and work on agriculture, with- 

 out adding entertainment or information. 



The hop plantations in Sussex have in- 

 creased from about 5400 to 9500 acres 

 within these last fourteen years, as appears 

 by a statement from the Board of Excise, 

 which was ordered by the House of Com- 

 mons to be printed in May, 1821. 



In a country where malt-liquor forms the 

 general beverage of the greater portion of its 

 inhabitants, it becomes a matter of no small 

 importance to know, that the hop contains 

 an aperient, and diuretic bitter, which makes 

 our beer more salubrious, whilst its balsamic 

 flavour makes it more agreeable, and com- 

 bines with these advantages, that of pre- 

 serving the liquor by its agreeably odorifer- 

 ous principle, which prevents the necessary 

 fermentation from going beyond due bounds. 



" The ale," (says Parkinson in his Thea- 

 trical Botanicum, published in 1640,) " which 

 our forefathers were accustomed only to 

 drink, being a kind of thicker drink than 

 beere, is now almost quite left off to be 

 made, the use of hoppes, to be put therein 

 altering the quality thereof, to be much more 



