December i, 1891.] THE TROP!CAL AGRICULTURIST- 
4^3 
the highest of all. 10,135 metres. The average velocity 
of cirrus clouds obEerved is 82 miles an hour, and 
their greatest velocity 133 miles an hour. — G/obe. 
TEMPERANCE DEINKS. 
The following recipes for the manufacture of refresh- 
ing drinks for labourers working in the hay or harvest 
fields have been issued by (he secretary of the 
Agrieu'.tu al Department of tbe Church of England 
Temperance Society at Norwich. They are recommend- d 
as being less heaily and heating, mo e permanently 
sustaiiiicg and capable of quenchiofr thirst than beer 
or any other form of alcoholic drink. They a'e also 
very pleastiut to the taste and cost very little to 
prepare : — 
(1) Stolcos, which is prepared thus : — Pat from 4oz. 
to 6oz. of fresb oatmeal, ground as flue as flour, into 
a pan ; mix with a little cold water to the substance 
of cream, then add about 5oz. or Oo/.. of leaf sugar, 
and bait a fresh lemon cat in thin slices, with the 
pips taken out; then add a gallon of boiling water. 
Stir tboronghly while the water is being poured 
on. Use hot, warm, or cold. Tbe lemon may be 
omitted, cr any other fl wearing used instead. Costs 
3d. a ffallou. 
(2) Ookos ii a good nonrishing drink, made as 
follows:— 4oz of good f e^h fine-ground oatmeal, 4oz. 
of cocoa, add a liMle cold watijr, a-id mix into a 
thin batter, then add 4oz. of loaf mgar and a gallon 
o'' boiling water; take to tbe fiAX in a stone .jar. 
Costs lid. a quart. 
(3) H'opkos is a good barveft drink. Boil Joz. 
of bops and ioz., of pinger (bruise I) in 1>> gallons 
of vater for 25 minutes, aid lib uf best brown 
sugar, and boil 10 minutes more, then straiii and 
bottle, ir put into a ciisk while hot; it will be 
ready for drinkinj; vvhea co'd. Keep in a cold place. 
Dried horohouulmay be used instead of hops. Costs 
3J. a gallon. 
. ^ 
KENTISH HOPS AND INDIAN TEA. 
[We had heard a good deal recently about hop 
tea, but we had no idea it had assumed the 
importance attributed to it in the following 
account. — Ed. 7'. A ] 
A fair maid of Kent — somewhat idealised, if one 
may judge from tlie lady hoppers one passes on the 
Maidstone Road — exchanging cordial greetings with 
a dusky damsel from Hindustan, effectively symbo'ises 
the industry \7hicb was called into existence so'ue 
year or more ago by the inventive genius of Mr. H. 
A. Snelling. It is a bright and taking poster. We 
had seen it on the Loadcn hoardings, and in Maid- 
stone again it meets the eye at every turn. There 
is tomethiug captivating abour this sentiment of bring- 
ing the two ends of the Empire to^jether to contri- 
bute to the contents of that dearly-cherished institu- 
tion the English teapot, but 
"Apart from the picturesquenesa of the idea, bos? 
on earth," I asked Mr. Snelling as we walked down 
the High Street of Maidsto .e lo^^etber, " bow on earth 
did you come to think ot Hop tea ?" 
" Well,'' siid Mr. Snelling, " I bad the idea v.iguely 
in my mind for some time. Theti one day I got a 
fine sample of dried liopd and made an infusion with 
them: the result was eomelhing like a cup of ex- 
tremely pungent Indian tea; alter which the idea 
took definite form. I mixed tbe bops with tea in 
certain proportion-i, and eventually, having satisfied 
myself that I bad got a gcoi thing, I took out my 
patent, and yon know the rest. Of coarse, ' continued 
Mr. Snelling, "this is cot a mere ques'Jou of taste, 
although, as a tea taster of oxperience, I hold tbht 
the judicious admixture of bops makes a marked 
improvement in the Ihivour of tea — which is 
generally udinitted now; but tlie invention has 
a very practioal aim from a hygienic point of 
view in which connection we attach gre'tl iupoitauos 
to the opinion of Dr. Adams as to the therapeutic 
value of hop to», and I should like to quote it if j oil 
write anything about our business." 
The following, therefore, in obedience to this re- 
quest, is what the President of the Public Society 
of Analyista of the United Kingdom has to say 
on the subject : — " This is to certify," ho writes, 
" that the sample of hop tea submitted to mo for 
analysis consists of blend of pure Indian and Geylou 
teas with Kentish hops, and coatains no admixture 
whatever. These constituents are miinipulated and 
dried in a most skilful manner, so as to develop the 
voliitilo oil which imparts the grateful aromou that 
is the speciiil characteristic of tbe best tens. The 
obemioal analysis discovers in unusual abundance the 
alkaloid tbeine — the substance to which tea owes its 
valuable properties as a food — giving rest and com- 
fort to the weiry, tranquility in nervous excitement, and, 
by some marvellous means, while preventing waste 
of nervous energy, promoting intellectual activity. As 
it appears to mo, this combination of tea and bop 
is a moat happy idea, by which the undesirable pro- 
perty of ordinary tea — namely, its astringeucy — is sen- 
sibly diminished and modified, whilst at the same 
advantageous tonic property ot the bop intiodnced. 
In my opinion the hop tei will prove to be a great 
boon to many persons hitherto debarred owing to 
excess of astrin^ency, the use of ordinary tea." 
There is no questioning the value of such testimony, 
although to tbe com mon-.sense consumer it hardly needs 
the opinion of a scientific expert to demonstrate tbe 
advantage of counteracting the evil effect of excessive 
tea-drinking upon the nerves and digestion by the 
addition of an ingredient which is admittedly a 
valuable sedative and an excellent stomach tonic. 
Conceivably, there may be thousands to wh )m tea 
has bion a forbidden luxury who may hencaforth, 
through this simple invention, find no bar to their 
enjoyment of it ; and this, indeed, seema to be the 
case, for in the tomparatively short time in which 
hop tea Das been before the public the demand for 
it lias grown throughout the country to an extent 
which sufficiently il uatratesthe hold which it has taken 
upon the public f.iDcy. Upwards of fifteen hundred 
local agents sell it throughout the United Kingdom, 
and one retail agent alone is credited with the sale 
of 15 tons in six months. 
The idea of mixing hop cones with tea 
seems sufficient'y simple, but the manipula- 
tioQ is hardly simple enough — even were it 
not protected by patents — to permit of the 
trade b ing t?ken up by any whose doje study 
of the subject does not justify their posing 
as expeits. It was very early discovered, for 
instance, that brewers' hops, dried and pre- 
pared in the usual m inuer and exposed to sulphurous 
fumes, were totally unsuitable for tea-blending, where 
delicacy of flavour must be retained. Hence the Hop 
Tea Company, to whom Mr. Snelling disposed of his 
BoKlish patents, found themselves under the necessity 
of trentiiig the hops ah initio, and hence the pleasant 
tea-housn on tbe Medway of which I had beard so much, 
and to visit which was one of the objeots of my day at 
Maidstone. 
This picturesquely-situated factory condenses its year's 
work into about eight weeks — the Kentish hop season 
— in tlio course of which time suSicient hop must he 
prepared to cover the estimated requirements for the 
ensuing twelve months. The hops come in fresh from 
the surrounding country: the factory is now at its 
busiest; ai d tbe hops were arriving when I was there — 
fresh, i^'reon, and fragrant— with thit eeduotivo 
and indescribable hop-fragrance which, like the 
flavour of tomatoes, grows upon one by familiarity. 
On arriving, the hops aro spread to " wither '' tor six 
or eight hours on trays in the upper floor of the 
factory, across whi';h a thorough draught of fresh air 
blows from the M .'dway and the open country b"yond. 
After tbo '• svithcriug," the hops go to the rolling 
machine, wherein about n ton a day are triturated be- 
tween two wooden surl'acr's. The crushed bops are then 
sifted, and the thicker stalk.? that will not pass tbe sieves 
aro put back for another crushing; then, after being 
