YAMS. 
The hops of finest colour and best sample are put 
into bags of finer manufacture than the others, under 
the denomination of pockets ; and the inferior sorts are 
packed in canvas of coarser kind, called bags. 
When the hop-picking is completed, the poles are 
cleared from the binds or plants which adhered to 
them, and are stacked or piled together. The binds, 
when perfectly dried, are either stacked or placed in 
sheds, to be used as fuel in ovens, or otherwise. 
Sometimes they are burnt upon the land, for the ashes 
to serve as manure, trodden in the farm-yard, or 
allowed to be taken away by the labourers for their 
own use. 
As the hop-plants are liable to be injured in various 
ways during their growth, they are considered a very 
precarious crop. They suffer from the attacks of in- 
sects, from honey-dew, from blight, from hot sunny 
weather after rain, and by winds and storms. 
The principal use of hops, in brewing, is for the pre- 
servation of malt liquor, and to communicate to it an 
agreeably aromatic bitter flavour. The best hops are 
used for ale and the finer kinds of malt liquor, and in- 
ferior kinds are used for porter. The odour of hops 
hung over a bed, or a pillow stuffed with hops, has been 
said to promote sleep, after the application of opium has 
failed. The young shoots and tops are often gathered 
from the hedges, by poor people, and boiled and eaten 
in the manner of asparagus. OT the woody part of the 
hop-binds, after having been steeped in water, and 
worked into a pulp, a coarse kind of paper may be 
made. 
HEXANDRIA. 
261. YAMS are an American and West Indian root of 
very irregular shape, ivhich possess properties somewhat simi- 
lar to those of the potatoe, but they are less mealy, and, in a 
raw state, are very viscous. 
The plants (Dioscorea bulbifera) which produce these roots 
have heart-shaped leaves, and a stem thai creeps along the 
ground Uke ivy. 
