URTICACER. loo 
This may hold good if beer is necessarily made with hops; but long before this time 
beer had been brewed in England without hops, other wild plants being added to it. 
This beverage always went by the name of ale, derived from the northern 61, applied 
by the Scandinavians to the strong beverages quaffed by the deep-drinking Vikings, 
brewed either from malt alone or with a mixture of honey, and flavoured with heath 
tops, germander, and various other aromatic herbs. The controversy as to the 
use of hops in the manufacture of beer, seems to have waxed hot at the time of their 
introduction into England. The citizens of London protested in a body against 
“Newcastle coals in regard of their stench, and hops in regard of their taste.” 
Tusser, in his “ Hondreth Good Points of Husbandrie,”’ published in 1557, gives 
sundry directions for the cultivation of hops, and advocates their use. He says:— 
“The hop for his profit I thus do exalt, 
It strengtheneth drink, and it sayoureth malt ; 
And being well brewed, long kept it will last, 
And drawing abide—if you draw not too fast.” 
Before the close of the sixteenth century the hop was cultivated in southern 
England, and it was generally accepted as an addition to our agriculture. 
The hop plant requires a rich deep soil for its profitable cultivation, and the subsoil 
should be well drained; while a southern aspect is supposed to be favourable to a 
good crop of catkins. The plants are obtained by taking off the young shoots which 
are thrown up from the old roots, and planting them in beds till they are sufficiently 
grown for removal to the hop-ground. When the plants attain a sufficient size, 
poles twelve feet or more in length are stuck near each, and the stems, or “ bines,” 
tied to them till they begin to hoist of their own accord. It is curious to observe 
how every plant invariably winds to the right, and no force is able to change this 
natural inclination. The first year of planting, the crop is generally small, and not 
worth gathering; it improves the second year; but the third year should find the 
plants in full bearing. The hop, being diccious, the fertile and barren flowers being 
on different plants, it is necessary that some of the stamen-bearing plants should be 
grown in the neighbourhood of the others. Some growers depend on the pollen being 
conveyed by wind or insects from the wild plants of the hedges, but it is not safe to 
trust to this. The hop plant is peculiarly liable to the attacks of insects, and is 
greatly dependent on the weather, so that the crop is very uncertain and precarious, 
but under favourable circumstances from eight to fourteen cwt. per acre is yielded, 
and sometimes even more in good seasons, and where the plants are well manured. 
The crop usually ripens in September, and then the hops are picked by hand as 
rapidly as possible, the bines being cut about three feet from the ground, to allow of 
the poles being pulled up and the plants brought within reach; they are then generally 
laid sloping over a frame, beneath which a cloth or sort of cradle is laid to catch the 
hops as they are picked. The necessity of completing this operation quickly and during 
fine weather compels the employment of many hands, and the “ hopping time,” in 
the counties where they grow, is as busy and cheerful a season as the vintage in more 
southern climes; a hop-yard, at the time of harvest, greatly resembling a vineyard 
during the grape season. 
The hops are dried in a kiln, and afterwards slightly heated by being laid in heaps 
on a floor; they are then closely packed in canvas bags, or “ pockets,” for sale. The 
uncertainty of the crop, the great expense attending its culture, and the heavy excise 
duty levied on it, render the occupation of the hop-grower very speculative and pre- 
carious. He may lose in one year more than he can gain by several favourable seasons. 
