CULTURE AND PRODUCTION IN ENGLAND. 53 



hops which lose a part of it from fine weather or over ripe- 

 ness in picking or turning on the oast, will considerably 

 diminish in gravity. 



" They should feel clammy when handled, should be uni- 

 form in colour, without greenish particles in the flower, 

 and full of hard seeds, and farina or condition. Mould may 

 be discovered inthe sample by the strig of the flower being 

 partly bare of leaf. Particular attention must also be paid 

 to crust, proceeding from damp or bad keeping, as it injures 

 the quality more than age. 



" New hops, like new teas, have a larger proportion of 

 volatile oil than old hops, and there is a strife amongst the 

 growers to bring the earliest supply to the market." 



English hops, well prepared and especially well packed, 

 soon acquired a high and merited reputation ; then Germany 

 and Austria began to give increased attention to the culti- 

 vation and preparation of hops, and selected fine and delicate 

 species. There are several varieties distinguished on the Con- 

 tinent, such as common hops, those in which the cones are 

 formed of large and thick bracts, at the base of which are 

 found small resiniferous yellow grains of an aromatic and 

 bitter flavour. The Flanders hops have also large cones, 

 thick with short dense bracts and dry lupuline. The English 

 hops are strong, of a rough flavour, the bracts and cones 

 large. The German hops have the delicate bracts on the cones, 

 of the colour of Sienna earth ; the lupuline grains are small, 

 transparent, and oily to the touch, adhering to the fingers. 



It is highly necessary that brewers should have determined 

 for them the quality of the hops they employ, because 

 according to the quantity of aromatic matter which they 



