PECULIARITIES OF THE INDUSTRY. 21 



for certain painful internal diseases, made by boiling 

 two pounds of hops in two gallons of water for half an 

 hour, then strain and press and add the fluid to about 

 thirty gallons of hot water. A pillow of hops induces 

 sleep. Hop tea is said to be good for the blood and 

 for fever. 



The hop root contains much starchy matter and 

 considerable tannin, but has never been utilized for 

 these substances. The root has been used as a substi- 

 tute for sarsaparilla. The tender shoots, taken when 

 they just appear above ground, are cooked and eaten 

 like asparagus or greens, making a dainty bitter relish, 

 if the soil has been worked up so that the shoot is white 

 for a foot or more. Hop buds are also used as a salad. 

 The stem of the hop plant contains a vegetable wax 

 and sap from which can be made a durable reddish 

 brown. Its ash is used in the manufacture of Bohe- 

 mian glass, and the vine also makes an excellent pulp 

 for paper. From its fiber, ropes and coarse textile 

 fabrics of considerable strength have been made. To 

 make hop cloth the stalks are cut, done up in bundles 

 and steeped like hemp, then dried in the sun, and 

 beaten with mallets to loosen the fibers, which are 

 afterward carded and woven in the usual way. Excel- 

 lent paper and cardboard can be made from hop vines 

 or roots, or from spent hops, and there are various 

 patents and processes for such products. The vine 

 being hollow, it is often used by boys for smoking pur- 

 poses or as stems for pipes. 



Hop vines are usually burned after the crop is 

 gathered, but if pressed into stacks or pits while still 

 green they make an ensilage that is good feed for cat- 

 tle. In France, the fresh hop leaves are also saved and 

 fed with other forage to cattle. Valuable experience 

 on this point is afforded by T. M. Hopkins of Worces- 

 ter, England, who writes: "In October, I made two 

 stacks of hop vines 16 by 16 feet and 18 feet high. After 



