Hop Drying Temperatures. 



385 



;6'3o,ooo for the survey of the districts, and the enactment is 

 officially declared to embody the most important forestry 

 legislation hitherto passed by Congress. The intention is,, 

 briefly, to improve and protect the forests within the 

 reservations, to secure favourable conditions of water flow, and 

 to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and 

 necessities of citizens of the United States. 



A series of hourly readings of the temperature of the kiln 



or oast in which hops are dried was 



Hop Drying taken last year in three oasts in different 

 Temperatures. 



parts of the county of Kent, and also in 

 the oast at the South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye- 

 Most divergent opinions have hitherto circulated as tO' 

 the temperature that prevails during the process, but 

 this diversity is largely due to the position of the ther- 

 mometer. After many trials it was found necessary 

 to use two thermometers, one above and one below the 

 layer of hops ; they were generally placed opposite the 

 door and about a yard from the side of the oast. The results 

 obtained showed that in a good drying the thermometer 

 below the hops rises rapidly, the thermometer above 

 remaining nearly stationary at about 80 degs. Fahr. After 

 about 6 hours, when the lower thermometer shows 140 degs.. 

 to 160 degs. Fahr., the upper thermometer begins to rise 

 and the lower to fall, the two temperatures approximate 

 an hour or two before the end of the drying, and remaia 

 tosfether to the close. The records of several dryings that 

 resulted in spoilt hops never showed the sharply contrasting 

 rise and fall of the two thermometers, the lower one rose, 

 slowly and fell again, and never reached the temperatures 

 recorded in the other cases. The fact that well-dried hops, 

 can be exposed to a temperature of 150 degs. Fahr. had never 

 been realised before. 



\^Report on Distribution of Grants in aid of Agricultural 

 Education, 1896-97. C, 8690.] 



B B 



