PECULIARITIES OF THE INDUSTRY. 19 



"The hop industry is a gamble," has therefore 

 come to be an axiom. Yet with all its uncertainties 

 this saying is not exactly true. Men who most per- 

 fectly understand the crop and most prudently allow 

 for its uncertainties, have kept right along raising hops 

 year after year, aiming at marketing about an even 

 quantity of nice goods each season, and have found 

 the industry rather more profitable in the end than any 

 other crop grown in their neighborhood. It is fair to 

 say that such men are a minority, and that the majority 

 of American hop planters during the past forty years 

 have quit hop growing poorer than when they began. 



Much can be done to reduce the artificial uncer- 

 tainties in the hop industry, also to mitigate the natural 

 causes of variation. One object of this book is to set 

 forth how this can be done, and thus to place the whole 

 hop industry on a surer basis. 



USES OF THE HOP 



The manufacture of beer and ale consumes prob- 

 ably 95 per cent, or more of the world's production of 

 hops. The oil from hops (that is, from the strobiles) 

 is used for medicinal purposes. A decoction of hops 

 is used in medicine for their tonic effect. Hops also 

 have a sedative action, and are prescribed for derange- 

 ments of the digestive organs attended by nervous 

 irritability. The hop extract or lupulin kept in drug 

 stores is preferred to the decoction for medicinal use. 

 For hot applications to the body, nothing will retain 

 heat or is more convenient for this purpose than a bag 

 or compress of hops. For a variety of purposes, in 

 household medicine, the hop is indispensable and 

 widely used, as well as for yeast. Hops are prepared 

 with a strong decoction of hops, oatmeal and water, 

 and make an excellent remedy for ulcers, which should 

 first be fomented with the decoction. A hop bath to 

 relieve pain has also been recommended by physicians 



