393 



HISTORY OF TIIK VECiETABLE KINGDOM. 



What is a singular advantage in that climate, no 

 insect will attack this plant. They require very 

 little moisture. 



The Hop Plant (humulits lupulusj. Nat. 

 fam. urticew; dicecia, peiUandria, Linnseus.. The 



149. 



The Hop. 



hop has been cultivated in Europe, from the very 

 earliest records, for the sake of its flowers, which 

 are used for preserving beer, and imparting a hit- 

 ter and narcotic quality to that liquid. Although 

 indigenous both in Scotland and Ireland, its cul- 

 ture was not introduced into England till the 

 reign of Henry VIII., when it was imported 

 from Flanders. It is little cultivated either in 

 Ireland or Scotland, owing to the moist nature 

 of their autumnal seasons. The hop, like all the 

 dioecious family, bears its flowers on separate 

 plants ; the female plant, therefore, is alone cul- 

 tivated. There are several varieties raised in 

 Kent and Surrey, as the Flemish, Golding, Can- 

 terbury. The first is the most hardy, differing 

 little from the wild plant ; the second is an im- 

 proved variety, and highly productive ; but more 

 liable to the disease of blight than the other. 

 The hop grows only in rich soils, and prefers a 

 deep loam with a dry bottom, a sheltered situa- 

 tion, exposed to the south or south-west, but, at 

 the same time, not so coniined as to prevent a 

 free circulation of air. The soil requires to be 

 well pulverized and manured previously to plant- 

 ing. In hop districts the ground is generally 

 trenched, either with the plough or spade. The 

 mode of planting is generally in rows, six feet 

 apart, and the same distance in the row. Five, 

 six, or seven plants are generally placed together 

 in a circular form, and at a distance of five or 

 six feet from each other. The plants or cuttings 

 are procured from the most healthy of the old 

 shoots; each should have two joints or buds; from 

 the one which is placed in the ground springs 

 the root, and from the other the stalk. Some 

 plant the cuttings at once where they are to re- 

 main ; and others rear them for a year in nurse- 

 ries, and then transplant them. An interval 

 crop of beans or cabbages is generally taken the 

 first year. The poles are placed to the plants 

 generally the second j'ear, at first only five or 



six feet in length ; in the third year are substi- 

 tuted poles of sixteen feet in length, from four 

 to six poles to each circle of plants, as they now 

 acquire their perfect dimensions, and come into 

 full bearing. The Spanish chestnut affords the 

 most durable wood for poles, and, accordingly, 

 is much grown in Kent, the chief hop county, 

 for this purpose. The after culture of the hop 

 consists in stirring the soil, and keeping it free 

 from weeds ; in guiding the shoots to the polos, 

 and sometimes tying them, for that purpose, 

 with withered rushes ; in eradicating any super- 

 fluous shoots which may arise from the root, and 

 in raising a small heap of earth over the root, to 

 prevent any more shoots from rising. Hops are 

 known to be ready for gathering when the chaffy- 

 capsules acquire a brown colour and a firm con- 

 sistence. Each chaflry capsule, or leafed calyx, 

 contains one seed. Before these are picked, the 

 poles, with the attached stalks, are pulled up, 

 and placed horizontally on frames of wood, two 

 or three poles at a time. The hops are then 

 picked off by women and children. After being 

 carefully separated from the leaves and stalks, 

 they are dropped into a large cloth, hung aU 

 round within side the frame on tenter hooks. 

 When the cloth is full the hops are emptied into 

 a large sack, which is carried home, and the hops 

 laid on a kiln to be dried. This is always done 

 as soon as possible after they are picked, as they 

 are apt to sustain considerable damage, both in 

 colour and flavour, if allowed to remain long in 

 sacks in the green state in which they are pulled. 

 In very warm weather, and when they are pulled 

 in a moist state, they will often heat in five or 

 six hours ; for this reason the kilns are kept con- 

 stantly at work, both night and day, from the 

 commencement of the hop harvest till the ter- 

 mination. The operMion of drying hops is not 

 materially different from that of drying malt, 

 and the kilns are of the same construction. The 

 hops are spread on a hair cloth, from eight to 

 twelve inches deep, according as the season is dry 

 or wet, and the hops ripe or immature. When 

 the ends of the hop stalks become quite shri- 

 velled and dry, they are taken off the kiln, and 

 laid on a boarded floor till they become quite 

 cool, when they are put into bags. The bagging 

 of hops is performed in the following manner: 

 In the floor of a room, where the hops are laid 

 to cool, there is a round hole or trap, equal to 

 the mouth of a hop bag. After tying a handful 

 of hops in each of the lower corners of a large 

 bag, which serve afterwards for handles, the 

 mouth of the bag is fixed securely to a strong 

 hoop, which is made to rest on the edges of the 

 hole; and the bag itself being then dropped 

 through the trap, the packer goes into it, when 

 a person, who attends for the purpose, puts in 

 the hops in small quantities, in order to give the 

 packer an opportunity of packing and trampling 



