258 Hop Cultivation. 
per yard. They are rather over 6 feet long, and about 3 feet in 
diameter. 
When the crop is picked, the pockets are generally sent at 
once to the Borough, the great centre of the hop trade, either for 
sale, or to be kept properly in well-aired and well-ventilated 
store rooms. If the hops remain long in the store room attached 
to oast houses, they frequently become crusted from damp and 
want of aeration. 
For sale purposes a sample is taken from each pocket. 
Sampling is a delicate operation, requiring great care and nicety. 
A clumsy sampler will soon take off many shillings per cwt. 
from the look of the hops by want of skill in his manipulation. 
A good sampler, on the other hand, will give a good “ face ” to 
the samples, and make as much of the hops as possible. The 
process is as follows. The pocket is laid down with the 
seam side uppermost. The seam is cut a foot and a-half towards 
the middle of the pocket, its edges being fastened back with 
iron pins. An extractor with sharp knives and lever handles is 
thrust in, and a wedge of hops is drawn out. This is reduced 
with a sharp knife to a square of five or six inches by the 
sampler, who takes care to leave a smooth, uncut face. All 
the perfections and imperfections of management, colour, and 
character can be seen by the face, while the thickness, quantity 
of seed, “ condition,” and state of maturity at picking time, are 
indicated from the sides of the sample cleanly cut by the knives 
of the extractor. 
In a perfect sample the cones, as seen on the face, should 
be whole, with the strigs or stalks completely free from mois 
ture, and the lupulin or “ gold dust ” adhering to the bracts 
A very few leaves should be seen, and the cones should be single 
and not in bunches, and of a pale gold colour. An aromatic 
odour should pervade it, without the slightest trace of the sweet, 
“ gingerbready ” smell, like heated clover hay, indicative of too 
much fire. Upon rubbing down some of the sample in the hand, 
there should oe no fibrous residue, but the whole should chaff 
finely, leaving a yellowish resinous deposit on the fingers. A 
well-managed and properly desiccated sample is most elastic, 
and can be compressed by the hand into a small compass, re- 
bounding to its original size when the compression is removed. 
This is a valuable indication of judicious drying. 
Many of the Kent and Sussex hops are sold by sample by 
factors in the Borough to merchants, who sell them to the 
brewers. Some are sold direct to brewers by the planters. This 
practice is becoming more frequent ; by it the planters save 
