the hop plant. 17 



Infloeescbncb and Flower. 



As already mentioned, the hop is dioecious, the male and 

 the female plants being separate individuals. The latter 

 alone are cultivated and yield the blossoms, which, when 

 ripe, contain the product valuable for brewing purposes. 

 Up to the present no agricultural value attaches to the 

 male hop, and indeed its presence in the vicinity of hop 

 gardens is looked on with disfavour as leading to the fer- 

 tilisation and fructification of the female flower, whereby 

 the value of the cones is diminished. 



A lower price is rightly paid for hops that contain seeds, 

 because in such case the brewer receives an inferior quantity 

 of utilisable material per unit of weight, and, moreover, such 

 hops impart a disagreeable flavour to the been Formerly, 

 when brewers were not compelled to look so closely into the 

 purchase of their raw material as they nowadays must, it 

 was customary in many places to plant a few male hops in, 

 the gardens ; but at the present time this practice is inad- 

 missible, since, as Professor Lintner says, "a hop garden 

 should resemble a nunnery, all males being excluded". 



It is not impossible that, in time, the male hop will meet 

 with some consideration for reproductive purposes, and E. 

 Graas, the director of the Agricultural Winter School at 

 Grosshof,^ reports that Stambach has already successfully 

 grown hops from seed in Alsace. In the hop garden, how- 

 ever, it is out of place, and its destruction, if found growing 

 wild in the vicinity, is perfectly justifiable. 



1 Ueber Fortschritte im Sapfenbau (Progress in Hop Cultivation), 3rd July, 

 1898. 



