SECRETARY'S REPORT. 97 



The mode of picking and drying was very defective. The 

 hops were picked in clusters, stems and leaves often thrown 

 in, and the drying was done by wood ; so that, when taken from 

 the kiln, they were "brown as a leg of bacon, and about as 

 much smoked." 



Colonel Samuel Jaques, who may justly be called the founder 

 of this business, was the first in the country to dry hops with 

 charcoal, in September, 1791. At the suggestion of Robert 

 Laird, a Scotch brewer, who afterwards lived many years in 

 Newburyport, young Jaques, then a lad of fifteen, but already 

 sufficiently advanced to be intrusted, in the absence of his 

 father, with the responsibility of overseeing the harvesting of 

 the crop, gave directions to have the hops picked entirely free 

 from stems and leaves, sent at once to a neighbor's for a load 

 of charcoal, and produced the most beautiful kiln of hops that 

 had ever been dried in America. He was not only astonished 

 himself, but astonished all the neighbors. When his father re- 

 turned on Saturday night, and beheld what had been done, he 

 could hardly restrain his joy and delight, for a new era had 

 begun in his favorite pursuit. 



The superiority of this mode of picking and drying was so 

 apparent that in 1792 it was pretty generally adopted, and has 

 been practised to this day; for, as this article became valuable 

 from these improved processes, the demand increased, doubled 

 and tripled, the culture extended, and the slips or cuttings to 

 form new plantations soon rose to exorbitant prices. 



It was the universal custom at that time to pack the hops in 

 round bags, without any uniformity in length or size, by tread- 

 ing them down with the feet in the rude manner still practised 

 in England. The consequence was, that the tops were bruised 

 and broken, causing great loss in strength and value by evapo- 

 ration of the essential juices of the plant, its most valuable 

 properties, to say nothing of the impossibility of packing 

 closely for transportation. Young Jaques, leaving his father 

 after the harvest of the crop of 1797, came to Charlestown, 

 and soon commenced packing hops in square bales, by means 

 of screws. The superiority of this mode was so apparent that 

 it soon became general. 



But difficulties often arose among merchants, from the fact 



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