80 QUALITY AND KEEPING OF HOPS, ETC. 



highest market price. The hops emit a very powerful 

 scent when ripe for picking, and all good experienced 

 growers watch for this peculiar odour, and begin at once. 

 They pay more attention to this point than to the appear- 

 ance of the hops. The wild hop is a very pretty, graceful 

 climbing plant, but not equal to the cultivated female plant. 

 It looks well in our hedges mixed with some of the beautiful 

 autumnal berries that ripen about October ; but I am not 

 aware that it is ever used medicinally. King Pepin is said 

 to have been the first person (of whom there is any record) 

 to have mentioned hops, and the passage occurs in a letter of 

 donation, in which his Majesty speaks of ' humuloraise ' ; but 

 I fancy he will be better remembered in France for his 

 efforts to conciliate Pope Gregory and the organ he pre- 

 sented to the Church of St. Corneille at Compiegne, than as 

 the proprietor of a hop garden." 



