898 



Hop Cultivation. 



[FEB., 



employ the mixture of soft soap and quassia dissolved in 

 water. 



The preparation of this wash, which is now almost 

 universally used, involves the use of a large copper or tank 

 in which to boil up and extract the quassia. In the absence 

 of these appliances the grower has perforce to make use of 

 proprietary washes, which are more expensive. 



Materials. — The quassia is usually purchased in the form 

 of chips, and care should be taken to see that these are very 

 small, and also quite dry. 



The soft soap should contain but little free alkali, since 

 this is the constituent which causes the scorching of the hop 

 leaves if present in too great a quantity in the wash; it is not 

 necessary that it should be entirely absent, since a small 

 quantity of free alkali is rather an advantage as it increases 

 the lathering power of the soap. 



The main point about a soap is the readiness with which 

 it forms a lather in water. 



Method of Mixing. — The first step in the preparation of 

 the wash is to make a concentrated extract of the quassia 

 and dissolve the soft soap in this, so that this concentrated 

 extract can be diluted to the necessary strength as required. 



The quassia chips are first put into the copper or tank and 

 water is poured upon them ; at least one gallon of water 

 should be added to i lb. of quassia chips, otherwise the 

 chips will be imperfectly extracted and much of the "bitter" 

 will be wasted. The water is brought to the boil and kept 

 simmering for two or three hours. The extract is then run 

 off or ladled out as the case may be. If time will allow, the 

 quassia chips should be boiled up a second time before being 

 thrown away, as they still contain much " bitter," and a fresh 

 lot of quassia can then be extracted, using the same liquid, 

 containing the second extract from the first lot of quassia. 



The soft soap should be weighed out and dissolved in the 

 quassia extract whilst this is still hot, since the soap dissolves 

 much more readily in hot water. It is convenient to dissolve 

 i lb. of soap in one gallon of extract so that when finally 

 diluting to the requisite strength for washing, the figure 

 giving the number of gallons of "liquor" to 100 gallons of 

 water is the same as the figure for the pounds of soap to the 

 100 gallons. 



