HOPS 



HOPS 



383 



the large, coarse leaves kept out and the clusters 

 separated. The cost of picking averages about 

 seventy-five cents per hundred pounds of green hops. 



Drying and haling. 



A hop-house or dry-house is a tight building with 

 a large heater or furnace, fourteen to twenty feet 

 above which is a slatted floor covered with open- 

 meshed cloth. On this the hops are spread in a 

 layer one to three feet deep, 

 and kept at a temperature of 

 125° to 200° until sufficiently 

 dry, a process that commonly 

 requires about twelve hours. 

 Ventilation is provided above 

 for the removal of the mois- 

 ture. During the early part 

 of the process, sulfur is 

 burned beneath the hops to 

 bleach out the green shade 

 and to bring them as nearly 

 as may be to a straw-color. 

 The sulfur also acts as a pre- 

 servative. One pound of sul- 

 fur will bleach one hundred 

 pounds of green hops. The 

 hops are occasionally turned 

 in order that the drying 

 may be uniform. The proper 

 curing of hops requires con- 

 siderable experience and 

 good judgment. 



From the kilns the hops are removed to the cool- 

 ing-room, where they are "sweated." Then, by 

 means of a hand press they are made up into hard, 

 solid bales, about twenty inches square and five 

 feet in length, which are sewed up in cloth, and 

 which should weigh about one hundred and ninety 

 pounds each. A box of hops should weigh thir- 

 teen to eighteen pounds when ready to bale. Two 

 thousand pounds of cured hops per acre may be 

 considered a maximum crop, although half this is 

 a satisfactory yield. 



black mold. It is nearly always present to some 

 extent, and in hot, damp weather it may spread 

 with amazing rapidity, turning the inner part of 

 the hop to a black, moldy mass and ruining the 

 crop. There is no remedy beyond planting yards 

 in breezy, well-drained places, avoiding too much 

 nitrogenous manure, and in harvesting the crop 

 promptly when it is reasonably mature. 

 The red rust discolors the outer part of the hops, 



The almost exclusive use of hops is in the brew- 

 ing of malt liquors, although in this they have 

 many substitutes. It is said that there should be 

 used about two pounds of hops per barrel of beer. 

 Low-grade and very old hops are sometimes " ex- 

 tracted," i. e., a decoction or extract of the hops is 

 made and shipped in barrels. A few factories have 

 been established for this purpose. In the old cook- 

 ery, a decoction of hops was used with flour or 

 corn-meal in the making of yeast. 



Enemies. 



Weeds. — Hops have no special weed enemies 

 beyond those common in other cultivated crops. 

 In some soils under careless cultivation, quack- 

 grass or couch-grass gains a foothold in the hills, 

 but neither this nor the annual weeds are a menace 

 to the careful grower. 



Diseases. — There are three serious fungous trou- 

 bles, the more important of which is the universal 



Scene in hop-yard at picking time. New York. 



causing the cured product to look badly, but not 

 greatly injuring the quality. This trouble is not 

 so common nor so serious as the mold. 



Mildew {Sphmrotheca castagnei) attacks the leaves, 

 forming white patches on both sides. In damp 

 weather it spreads rapidly over the leaf. It some- 

 times is found on the cones late in the season. It 

 is controlled by spraying with standard fungicides 

 or dusting sulfur on the leaves. It is not regarded 

 as a serious pest in the East. 



Insects. — While many forms of insect life abound 

 on hops, yet only two can be considered trouble- 

 some pests. The hop grub (Hydroicia immanis), 

 does great injury by working in the large suc- 

 culent roots that form the crown of the hill, 

 often greatly weakening if not entirely killing the 

 plant. The eggs are laid on the tips of the new 

 plants, and the larva eats into the vine, causing the 

 end to drop. Later the larva drops to the ground 

 and works up in the stem. There is no satisfactory 

 remedy, but it is considered a good thing to en- 

 courage skunks around the yard, as they burrow 

 for the grub. They may be gathered from the ends 

 of the young plants and destroyed. In extreme 

 cases it is advised to put ammonia phosphate or 

 wood-ashes about the roots before hilling up. 



The hop-aphis (Phorodon humuli), is always pres- 

 ent, often in enormous numbers, but generally 

 appears so late in the East that the crop is nearly 

 mature before much damage results. It is very 

 remarkable, however, that in 1885 the aphis ap- 

 peared in the East much earlier than usual, prac- 

 tically destroying the crop in New York state. It 



