KILNS FOR CURING HOPS. 177 



than is possible by the artificial hot-air cure in Eng- 

 land and America, and that this accounts in part for 

 the peculiarities of Spalt hops that command such 

 extraordinary prices. The dealers buy the hops loose 

 from the grower, sack them, carefully assort the hops, 

 putting all of one color and strength together before 

 bleaching them with sulphur; single firms thus handle 

 and bleach 20,000 bales or more. Spalt hops are never 

 bleached. 



In England and America, curing is done in spe- 

 cially constructed houses, in which temperature, mois- 

 ture and sulphur fumes can be regulated to a nicety. 

 The construction of these curing houses will be first 

 described. 



ENGLISH OAST HOUSES 



are well and briefly described by Whitehead: 



"The kilns for drying hops are of simple construc- 

 tion, being occasionally square, but more frequently 

 round, chambers, from 1 6 to 20 feet in diameter, with 

 stoves or fireplaces in them, and from 14 to 18 feet 

 high; at this height a floor of narrow joists, or oast 

 laths, an inch and a-half or so apart, is laid over the 

 chamber. At this point the sharply sloping roof com- 

 mences, being carried up to an apex with a circular 

 aperture of from two to three feet, upon which a cowl 

 is fixed. The roof is from 20 to 26 feet high. A sec- 

 tion of a kiln is given in Fig. 92, B, in which the rela- 

 tive height of the various parts is indicated. The kiln, 

 or chamber, is in some cases merely a room with open 

 iron stoves in it, as shown in the two lower kilns of the 

 ground plan D in Fig. 93 and in Fig. 92 B, 

 having holes at intervals in the walls, just above 

 the ground level to allow the admission of cold 

 drafts to drive up the hot air through the 

 hops above. Over the open stoves, iron plates 

 are hung, five or six feet from the floor, to break 



