96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Its History as a cultivated Plant. — The hop grows "wild in 

 Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, England, and in Massachusetts, 

 where it is indigenous. It is probably indigenous also to Eu- 

 rope, though supposed by some naturalists to have been brought 

 there by the Goths at a very early period. It was known, 

 probably, to the Greeks and Romans. It became more known 

 as a cultivated plant in modern Europe after the 8th and 9th 

 centuries. It was cultivated in Germany in the 14th century, and 

 introduced into England, but not much cultivated, previous to 

 1524. The prejudices against this plant were at first very 

 great, and Henry VIII. ordered the brewer not to put hops 

 into the ale. Its cultivation was afterwards encouraged br- 

 acts of Parliament. One of the first works published on this 

 subject was, "A Perfite Platforme of a Hoppe Garden " in 

 1578. The cultivation of hops in Sweden was regarded of so 

 great importance that every farmer was required by law to 

 have at least forty poles of them; and in failure of this he was 

 punished, unless he could show that his land was not capable of 

 producing them ; and the picking of them before they were ripe 

 was followed by a penalty. The cultivation was brought to 

 considerable perfection there as early as the close of the 17th 

 century. This plant was introduced into Massachusetts at a 

 very early date. " Hop rootes " were ordered by the Governor 

 and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in 

 1628. 



The cultivation of this crop in Massachusetts has grown up 

 for the most part within the last seventy years, and its history 

 is' so interesting as to merit a more extended notice than my 

 present limits allow. 



In 1789 some eight or ten of the priucipal growers of hops 

 met at the house of Samuel Jaques, Esq., one of the largest 

 hop growers of Wilmington, for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the amount of hops grown in the State. The quantity was so 

 limited, and the number of growers so few, that those present 

 could name both the growers and the quantity each raised 

 throughout fin' whole country. Previous to that time only about 

 thirty thousand pounds had been grown in any one year in this 

 State, and by far the larger part of those was raised in Wil- 

 mington and a few adjoining towns in Middlesex county. 



