184 HOPS. 



state— in a vat filled with a 30 per cent, solution of copper 

 sulphate. In four days the wood will be saturated and able 

 to stoutly withstand rotting. The drier the poles the longer 

 the time required for steeping, perfectly dry wood absorbing 

 practically none of the solution.^ 



A cheap method, said to be capable of protecting the 

 butts of hop poles, consists in partly filling the holes the 

 poles are to occupy with a mixture of coal ashes and lime 

 (2 : 1). It is also averred that either of these materials is 

 useful when employed separately,^ but it is questionable 

 whether such treatment is not likely to injure the adjacent 

 roots of the hop plant. In any case the method is worth a 

 trial. 



When treated, the poles are conveyed to the hop garden 

 and distributed there in such a manner as to minimise 

 subsequent loss of time in carrying them about. As soon as 

 the new second shoots begin to appear above the ground the 

 work of "poling" or "pitching the poles " is commenced. 

 For this purpose a hole about 20 inches deep is driven into 

 the soil by means of the "hop bar" (Fig. 43), at each peg 

 marked out in new gardens, or on the site of the previous 

 year's poles in older gardens. To enable the work to be 

 done with sufficient ease and rapidity the hop bar should be 



^ Zeitschrift filr das gesammte Brauwesen, 1898, vol. xxi., No. 51. Dr. 

 Holzner reports in his review of the month (November) : — 



Impregnating Wood. — Dr. Kraus read before the German Mining Association 

 a paper on the various methods of preserving wood : (1) With mercury 

 chloride ("mercury stone"); (2) with zinc chloride ("white vitriol"); (3) 

 with tar oil ; (4) with aluminium sulphate and cupriferous iron in solution 

 (1 : 30), followed by calcium chloride (1 ; 50) and milk of lime (1 ; 40). In the 

 first three methods the wood is only superficially impregnated by the filling of 

 the cells with the preservative material. On the other hand, in the fourth 

 (Hasselmann's) method the cell walls are chemically modified under the 

 high pressure (2J to 3 atmos.) employed, and are thereby enabled to resist 

 putrefaction and decomposition (Allgemeine Brauer- und Hopfenzeitung, 

 No. 266, p. 2716). 



2 Hopfen- und Brauerzeitung, 1888. 



