CULTIVATION-. 249 



rapid drying without loss of quality ; but this system has not 

 yet been sufficiently tested.^ 



There are also other hop kilns, but these are more or less 

 similar in arrangement to the types already described. 



That kilning is the best of all methods for drying hops is 

 an undoubted fact, and the only question is whether the 

 small grower possesses sufficient capital to erect a kiln for 

 his own use. Even, however, where this is not the case, it 

 will always be easy for two neighbours, or a number of 

 growers in the same district, to combine for the purpose of 

 building a kiln, and thus obtain a benefit they would other- 

 wise be unable to enjoy. Under certain circumstances the 

 drying might very well be effected by contract with a kiln- 

 owner. 



When all the advantages of kilning are considered, and it 

 is also remembered that well-dried and good-looking hops 

 meet with a ready sale at better prices, which not only 

 repays the cost of a kiln in a short time, but also means a 

 positive benefit to the producer expressed in coin of the 

 realm, it will readily be admitted that the erection of kilns — 

 those powerful levers of the hop industry in general — cannot 

 be too warmly reconamended. Where the matter is too 

 difficult for the individual, association should be resorted to. 



When sufficiently dried by moderate heat, the hops are at 

 once ready for bagging. If, however, in consequence of too 

 high a kilning temperature the bracts are brittle and liable to 

 break under the pressure employed, it is advisable to expose 

 the hops for a short time on an airy floor in layers not over 

 8 to VI inches deep, and only proceed to bag them after they 

 have absorbed a little moisture and become more supple. 

 Bagging is often performed in the following manner : the 



' Fruwirth mentions a " normal " hop kiln by Griinfelder, and another 

 by Hauber, in his " Oesterreiohs Hopfenbau in der Jubilaumsperiode," Oesten: 

 landw. Wochenblatt, 1898. 



