118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that have been grown in the State, averaging, under good man-, 

 agement, more than $100 per acre, often, indeed, amounting to 

 much more than that, and exhausting the soil less than any 

 other. 



Uses. — The fibre of the hop resembles that of hemp, and a 

 strong, white cloth is manufactured from it, after being long 

 steeped in water. The root, stem and leaf may be used for 

 tanning leather, in the same manner as oak bark, sumac, &c. 

 Hops are also extensively used as medicines, having narcotic, 

 tonic, and diuretic properties of great value. They are often 

 used as a sedative. The lupuline, a fine yellow powder already 

 mentioned, contains, in 120 grains, 5 grains of tannin, 10 of 

 extractive, 11 of bitter principle, 12 of wax, 36 of resin, and 

 46 of lignin. All the astringency, as well as the aroma and 

 the bitterness, of hops, is found in the lupuline, which may be 

 easily separated from the strobiles by sifting; and as it weighs 

 but a sixth or eighth part of the whole, and occupies but a 

 small part of its bulk, it may be readily transported. Whether 

 these principles could be preserved in all their strength for 

 any length of time, when separated from the strobiles and 

 packed in tin cases, I do not know; but it is certainly worthy 

 of careful experiment, since, if they could, much of the labor 

 and expense of transporting hops might be avoided. 



But by far the largest use of hops is for the preservation 

 of various malt liquors from fermentation, and to impart to 

 them a bitter taste. Many other plants arc, or may be, used 

 for the same purpose, but they are all thought to be inferior to 

 the hop. From forty to fifty thousand acres of hops are culti- 

 vated in England every year, although the product is subject 

 to a tax which, in 1844, amounted in the aggregate to £256,240 

 15s. 2jcZ., or about $1,281,200, on 44,513.] acres. The malt 

 charged with duty in the same year amounted to no less than 

 37,187,186 bushels, returning a duty of £5,027,061. 



One object of the circular given above was, to obtain some 

 information as to the general condition of the agriculture of the 

 Commonwealth. As might be expected, i( differs very much 

 in different localities. In some sections all the fanners derive 

 their entire support from the farm; in others they depend, in 



