78 
ON  HOPS  AND  LUPULIN. 
this,  it  would  be  necessary  to  pass  the  hops  a  second  time 
through  the  kiln.  In  this  way  four  to  five  pounds  more  could 
be  obtained.  The  hops  would  be  greatly  injured  by  this  process, 
not  only  by  being  deprived  of  the  lupulin,  or,  as  hop-growers 
term  it,  "the  condition,"  but  they  would  be  very  brittle,  and 
would  be  so  broken  as  to  be  unsaleable.  One  hop-grower  told 
me,  he  did  not  believe  this  was  practised,  as  he  thought  the 
amount  of  lupulin  would  not  compensate  for  the  labor  and  ex- 
pense of  this  second  drying. 
There  is  a  difference  in  hops  raised  by  the  same  grower,  for 
this  reason.  As  the  hops  are  dried,  they  are  placed  in  a  pile 
in  the  store  or  curing  room,  till  all  the  crop  has  been  dried : 
they  remain  here  for  several  weeks,  as  the  curers  say  to  toughen  ; 
they  are  then  pressed  and  bagged. 
The  hops  at  the  bottom  of  the  heap  will  thus  have  much  more 
lupulin  than  those  at  the  top,  and  be  stronger  and  more  valuable  ; 
considerable  lupulin  will  be  collected  from  the  floor  of  the  curing 
room,  and  the  lupulin  thus  collected  will  be  of  the  best  quality. 
I  have  heard  that  quantities  of  lupulin  are  separated  spe- 
cially for  the  supply  of  commerce,  by  threshing  the  hops  after 
they  are  a  year  old,  and  then  sifting  the  powder  from  the  broken 
strobiles. 
The  hops  thus  treated  are  said  to  be  put  up  in  bags,  and  then 
sent  to  auction,  and  sold  for  what  they  will  bring,  without  any 
explanation  as  to  their  inferiority.  It  may  be  these  threshed 
hops  are  again  damped  and  pressed  into  pound  or  half  pound 
papers. 
The  best  way  of  detecting  the  fraud  would  be  to  remove  the 
contents  of  a  package  or  bale,  in  small  quantities  ;  if  there  was 
little  or  no  lupulin  left,  and  the  strobiles  were  much  broken,  it 
would  show  they  had  been  exposed  to  the  above  treatment. 
To  determine  the  quality  of  good  hops,  not  only  the  color 
should  be  examined,  but  the  powder  should  be  rubbed  between 
the  fingers;  if  the  lupulin  is  abundant  and  feels  clammy  and 
unctuous,  and  is  not  too  dark  colored,  the  hops  may  be  pro- 
nounced of  good  quality. — Proc.  American  Pharmaceutical 
Association.  1860. 
