HOPS. 
251 
stem, and leaves generally in three or Jive lobes or dmsions, 
and serrated. 
Although hops grow wild, in great abundance, on 
hedges in several parts of the south of England, there 
is reason to suppose that their use was first made 
known from the Continent in the reign of Henry the 
Eighth. 
A hop plantation requires the growth of some years 
before it is in perfection. The plants begin to push 
up their young stems about the month of April. 
When these are three or four inches above the ground, 
poles about twenty feet high are driven in to support 
them during their growth. The season for picking hops 
usually commence s about the middle of September. 
This work is performed by men, women, and children. 
Proper baskets, bins, or cribs being in readiness, the 
plants are cut off close to the ground, and the poles 
are drawn up. These are placed upon the bins, with 
the plants upon them, and three or more persons on 
each side, pick off the hops. Alter this they are dried 
in a kiln, and, when dry, are carried into, and kept, for 
five or six days, in an apartment called the stowage- 
room, until they are in a state to be put into bags. 
This is done through a round hole, or trap', cut in the 
floor of the stowage-room, exactly equal in dimen- 
sions to the mouth of the bag, and immediately under 
which this mouth is fastened. In each of the lower 
corners of the bag a small handful of hops is tied ; and 
a person, called the packer, places himself in it, and, by 
a heavy leaden weight, which he constantly moves 
round in the places where he is not treading, presses 
and forces the hops down, in a very close manner, into 
the bag, as fast as they are thrown to him by another 
labourer. The work thus proceeds till the bag is quite 
full, when each of the upper corners has a few hops 
tied in it, in the same manner as those at the bottom. 
These serve as handles for moving the bags. The bag 
is then taken away, and its mouth is properly sewed up 
and secured. 
