L U P 
The raoft convenient way of picking them is into a 
long fquare frame of wood, called a bin, with a cloth 
hanging on tenter-hooks within it, to receive the 
Hops as they are picked. 
The frame is compofed of four pieces of wood joined 
together, fupported by four legs, with a prop at each 
end to bear up another long piece of wood, placed at 
a convenient height over the middle of the bin ; this 
ferves to lay the poles upon which are to be picked. 
This bin is commonly eight feet long, and three feet 
broad •, two poles may be laid on it at a time, and 
fix or eight perfcns may work at it,, three or four on 
each fde. 
It will be beft to begin to pick the Hops on the eaft or 
north fide of your ground, if you can do it conveni- 
ently , this will prevent the fouth-weft wind from 
breaking into the garden. 
Having made choice of a plot of the ground contain- 
ing eleven hills fquare, place the bin upon the hill 
which is in the center, having five hills on each fide •, 
and when thefe hills are picked, remove the bin into 
another piece of ground of the fame extent, and fo 
proceed till the whole Hop-ground is finilked. 
When the poles are drawn up to be picked, you muft 
take great care not to cut the binds too near the hills, 
efpecially when the Hops are green, becaufe it will 
make the fap to flow exceffively. 
And if the poles do not come up without difficulty, 
they fhould be raifed by a piece of wood in the na- 
ture of a lever, having a forked piece of iron, with 
teeth, on the infide, fattened within two feet of the 
end. 
The Hops muft be picked very clean, i. e. free from 
leaves and (talks, and, as there (hall be occafion, two 
or three times in a day the bin muft be emptied into a 
Hop-bag made of coarfe linen cloth, and carried im- 
mediately to the oaff, or kiln, in order to be dried ; 
for if they fliould be long in the bin, or bag, they will 
be apt to heat, and be difcoloured. 
If the weather be hot, there (hould no more poles 
be drawn than tan be picked in an hour, and they 
fhould be gathered in fair weather, if it can be, and 
when the Hops are dry ; this will lave fome expence 
in firing, and preferve their colour better when they 
are dried. 
The beft method of drying Hops is with charcoal on 
an oaft or kiln, covered with hair-cloth, of the fame 
form and fafhion that is ufed for drying malt. There 
is no need to give any particular directions for the 
making it, fmce every carpenter, or bricklayer, in 
thofe countries where Hops grow, or malt is made, 
knows how to build them. 
The kiln ought to be fquare, and may be of ten, 
twelve, fourteen, or fixteen feet over at the top, where 
the Hops are laid, , as your plantation requires, and 
your room will allow. There ought to be a due pro- 
portion between the height and breadth of the kiln, 
and the beguels of the fteddle where the fire is kept, 
viz. if the kiln be twelve feet fquare on the top, it 
ought to be nine feet high from the fire, and the fted- 
dle ought to be fix feet and a half fquare, and fo pro- 
portionable in other dimenfions. 
The Hops muft be fpread even upon the oaft a foot 
thick or more, if the depth of the curb will allow it, 
but care is to be taken not to overload the oaft, if the 
Hops be green or wet. 
The oaft ought to be firft warmed with a fire before 
the Hops are laid on, and then an even fteady fire 
muft be kept' under them •, it muft not be too fierce 
at firft, left it fcorch the Hops ; nor muft it be fuf- 
fered to fink or (lacken, but rather be increafed till 
the Hops he near dried, left the moifture, or fweat, 
which the fire has raifed, fall back, or difcolour 
them. When they have lain about nine hours, they 
muft be turned, and in two or three hours more they 
may be taken off the oaft. It may be known when 
they are well dried by the brittlenefs of the (talks, 
and the eafy falling off of the Hop leaves. 
The Dutch and Flemings have another method of 
drying their Hops : they make a fquare kiln, on room, 
LUP 
about eight or ten feet wide, built of brick or (tone, 
having a door at one fide, and a fire-place in ' the 
middle of the room, on the floor, about thirteen 
inches wide within, and thirteen inches high in leno-th 
from the mouth of it, almoft to the back part of die 
kiln, a paffage being left juft enough for a man to 
go round the end of it j this they call ahorfe, (uch.as 
is commonly made in malt-kilns, the fire palling out 
at the holes at each fide, and. at the end of it. 
The bed, or floor, on which the Hops lie to be dried, 
is placed about five feet high above ; about that is 
-a wall near four feet high, to keep the Flops from 
falling. j 
A window is made at one fide of the upper bed, to 
(hove off the dry Hops down into a room prepared to 
receive them. The beds are made of laths, or rails, 
fawn very even, lying a quarter of an inch diftanc 
from one another, with a crofs beam in the middle, 
to fupport them ; the laths are let in even with the top 
of the beam, and this keeps them even in the places j / 
this they call an oaft. 
The Hops are laid on this bed by bafkets full, with- 
out any oaft-cloth, beginning at one end, and fo go- 
ing on till all is covered, half a yard thick, without 
treading them then they even them with a rake, that 
they may lie of equal thicknefs. 
This being done, they kindle the fire below, either 
of wood or charcoal, but the latter is accounted the 
better fuel for Hops •, this fire is kept as much as 
may be at an equal or conftant heat, and only at the 
mouth of the furnace, for the air will fufficiently dii- 
perfe it. 
They do not ftir them till they are thoroughly dried, 
i. e. till the top is as fully dried as the bottom ; but 
if they find any place not to be fo dry as the reft, 
(which may be known by reaching over them with a 
(tick or wand, and touching them in feveral places,) 
they obfervd where they do not rattle, and where they 
do and where they do not rattle, they abate them 
there, and difpofe of them where the places were 
firft dry. 
They know when they are thoroughly dry, by the 
brittlenefs of the inner ftalk, if it be fhort when it is 
rubbed j which when they find, they take out the 
fire, and (hove out the Hops at the window that is 
made for that purpofe, into the room made to re- 
ceive them, with a coal-rake made with a board at 
the end of a pole, and then go in at a door be- 
low, and fweep up the Hops and feeds that tall 
through, and put them to the other Flops ; then they 
lay another bed of green Hops, and renew the fire, 
and proceed as before. 
This method is difapproved by fome, becaufe (they 
fay) the Hops lying fo thick, and not being turned, 
the under part of them muft needs dry before the up- 
per ; and the fire palling through the whole bed to dry 
the uppermoft, muft neceffarily over-dry, and much 
prejudice the greateft part of the Hops, both in 
ftrength and weight, befides the unneceflfary expence 
of firing, which muft be long continued to dry tho- 
roughly fo many together. 
Therefore fome have improved on this method, and 
advifed to make the kiln much as is before directed as 
to the Dutch way. 
Firft to make a bed of fiat ledges about an inch 
thick, and two or three inches broad, fawn, and laid 
acrols one another the fiat way, chequerwife, at about 
three or four inches diftance one from the other, the 
edges being fo entered one into the other, that the 
floor may be even and fmooth this bed may oe made 
to reft on two or three joifts, fet edgewife, to fupport 
it from finking. 
This bed is to be covered with large double tin, fol- 
dered together at each joint, and the ledges muft be 
fo ordered, before they are laid, that the joints of the 
tin may always lie over the middle of the ledge, tee 
bed being wholly covered over with tin : boards mult 
be fitted about the edges of the kiln, to keep up the 
Hops, but one fide muft be made to remove, mat the 
Flops may be (lioved off as before. 
Op 
