188 THE HOP. 



draft to the building. The studding (a) is of two by 

 six, sheathed outside with rustic boards, inside lathed 

 and plastered to the eaves. The roof is a half-pitch 

 hip-roof, the rafters ceiled up with matched boards to 

 the ventilator, w r hich should be five feet square on the 

 inside, and 12 or 14 feet high, and boxed up to within 

 three feet of the top, with swinging doors, to close at 

 pleasure. 



The hop kiln floor is usually 16 feet above 

 the earth, or four feet below the plates, as too large 

 an air space above the hops tends to check the draft 

 so necessary to carry off the moist vapor and steam. 

 The floor joists are two by eight, resting upon a two by 

 eight plate let into each stud one inch, and well spiked. 

 Rough boards are nailed down and covered with one 

 by four inch boards to make the floor. Hop-floor laths 

 an inch thick and two inches wide, sized and with one 

 edge rounded, are placed on the floor about an inch 

 apart (Fig. 102), upon which in due time the hop cloth 

 or carpet is stretched. In the France kiln the 

 cloth is stretched on wires, and is rolled off by a 

 shaft in the store room, so that all the hops are taken 

 off in five minutes and the carpet put back ready for 

 a new change without losing the heat or letting the 

 fire go down. An improvement on this device is shown 

 in Fig. 101. The hops are put on from a movable walk 

 a plank two and one-half feet above the carpet, sup- 

 ported from the rafters by wire suspension rods and 

 when the hops are on, the plank is turned on edge. 



The iron drying stove (Fig. 104), big enough to 

 take in four-foot wood, is set in brickwork, to prevent 

 fire, the underside of the stove not lower than the sill. 

 A 12-inch iron pipe runs up from the stove, break- 

 ing into a T (a a a, Fig. 104), the two arms gradually 

 rising on supports (Fig. iO3),but being kept about three 

 feet from the walls, to avoid fire; when the pipes reach 

 the other end of the room, they are joined by a T and 



