Hops

HOPS. Humulus. The importance of this crop in all civilized countries may be inferred, from its constantly extended cultivation, scarcely affording a supply for the increasing demand. Its principal use being in the manufacture of beer. In 1840 the entire product of the United States was 1,238,502 pounds; in 1850, 3,497,029 pounds; in 1860, 11,010,012 pounds; increased in 1862 to 16,000,000 pounds. Since this time its cultiva tion extended wonderfully in the West until it was attacked by the aphis, when it began to decline. In 1866, the planting in Wisconsin raged like an epidemic throughout many parts of the State, and in Sauk county; one of the princi pal localities where it was planted, the crop exceeded 4,000,000 pounds, returning $2,500,000 in one year. In 1869, the crop of the United States aggregated 25,456,669 pounds. Since 1869 the acreage steadily increased until, in 1876, it approximated that of England, which was nearly 70,000 acres. The hop crop reached its maxi mum in 1877, being110,000 bales. The season of 1878 was a disastrous one to the crop, and the acreage since that time has been decreased, but is now again increasing. In relation to the cost, one difficulty in hop-growing in the West, was that farmers rushed into it. without properly under standing the care and expense necessary to pro duce the crop. Hence, while some cultivators made money others signally failed. As showing something of the cost of the crop when ready for market, the following data will be interesting: A convention of hop-growers in New England, at a late session, appointed three different com mittees to estimate the average cost of producing hops. Committee No. 1, allowed $100 per acre for the average value of the land; cost of poles, fertilizers, and cartage, $44.10; labor in culti vation, $18; harvesting and curing, $64,36; insurance and marketing, $11.83; boxes, etc., $2.98; total, $141.27. A crop of 1,000 pounds would at such a rate average 14* cents per pound. Committee No. 2, allowing $80 per acre as the value of the land, estimated the average cost of 1,000 pounds at 12+ cents. Committee No 3, at $100 per acre, and with a yield of 800 pounds, made the average cost 12 1-5 cents per pound. The average cost of producing hops in Kent county, England, a famous hop district, is estimated by a local authority at £5 or $24.30 per hundred weight (not quite twenty-two cents per pound). As an illustration of the change in conditions of production the following statement of a hop-grower in Sauk county, Wis., dur ing the flush times of 1867, is given : His yard embraced four acres, and the capital invested, including land, poles, drying-houses, stove, presses, etc., amounted to $2,000. Dur ing the second year of his investment, 1867, he estimated his expenses as follows: Interest on capital, ten per cent., $200; cultivation, setting poles, etc., $100; harvesting, curing, etc., $943; total expenses, $1,243. Receipts, for 11,520 pounds of hops at sixty cents per pound, $6,912; net receipts for hop roots, $3,040; total receipts, $9,952; net receipts, $8,709, or 435 per cent. The history of the hop shows it to have been cul tivated from most ancient times. Mesne, an Arabian physician who died about 846, mentions the hop vine in his writings. When it was first introduced into England is not known, hut about,1525, a doggerel appeared as follows: "Hope. heresy, pickerel and beer Were brought to England in one year." In 1528, Parliament was petitioned to prohibit its use, as spoiling the taste of beer, nevertheless its cultivation continued to extend, until it has become a crop of prime importance among agri cultural products. The soil and manure best adapted to the plant, may be determined by the general character of its growth. The soil should be deep, friable, containing humus, never wet but at the same time one that will withstand drought. Clay soils, if tenacious, should be thoroughly drained, since the hop roots penetrate deep and will not stand wet. Wet soils, hot suns, and drying winds in conjunction are fatal to the hop. Rather firm, deep, rich, well drained alluvial soils, protected from sweeping winds, are natural ones and the best, nevertheless, hops will not succeed in a close atmosphere, they require air, but do not like sweeping winds. The cultivation of the hop may be pretty well understood from the follow ing, compiled from numerous authorities: The sexes of the hop plant are not united in the same plant, but some are male and others female. Since the sexual relation of the strawberry plants has been so thoroughly discussed in the United States, the importance of having some male plants in the hop grounds will be generally admitted. The male flower grows in a loose panicle, whilst the female flower is compact, like the cone of the pine tree. Hop seeds produce plants, but as they are like fruit seeds, producing varieties of quite different qualities, the hop plants should be multiplied by slips from a well known and approved variety. At the base of each scale or leaf of the female blossom of the hop there is a flower, in which is the germ of the seed. As this seed matures the scales grow larger, and are cov ered with resinous aromatic balls, called lupuline. These are the fine yellow powder of the hop, and contain the bitter principle that renders the hop so valuable in preserving and flavoring malt liquors. This bitter principle is stronger or more deli cately flavored in some varieties of the hop than in others, and in proportion as the seed is fully de veloped. This female blossom is vitalized by the pollen of the male plant. Though the pollen, says an English writer, from its extreme light ' ness, can be wafted to a considerable distance, and some seeds in each cone may be so fertilized, vet it would be well to rear a number of the male plants among the others, or along the hedges of the hop gardens, to insure the fertilization of all the seeds. A bushel of hops collected from plants of the fourth year, raised from seed, weighed thirty-six pounds, there being male plants near ; a second instance, where the plants were raised from cuttings, weighed thirty-five pounds; while a bushel, grown in a garden where the male plants were always eradicated, weighed only twenty-two pounds. Besides the greater quantity of hops thus obtained, the aroma is much greater, (the lupuline, on which the aroma depends, is considered by Blanch6 to be the unappropriated pollen dust which has alighted on the scales of the females,) and the strength of the bitter much greater. On this point Mr. Rouse says: It is necessary that a small number of the male plants should be interspersed among the others, in order to give that energy and vitality to the seed which is essential to the perfection of the crop. If due care is taken in this particular, a seed will be found at the bottom of each petal of the blossom possessed of a most pungent aro matic flavor. Attention to this particular is, indeed, necessary to insure flavor and character to the product of the plant, giving it that fine aromatic bitter which is most desirable, and which it will not otherwise be possessed of, the petal or leaf of the blossom containing compara tively but little of the astringent quality of the hop. This consideration is one which I apprehend is too frequently overlooked by the inexperienced cultivator, who sometimes rejects the male plants as barren, to the great injury of the crop. He recommends one male plant to fifty female. In selecting the varieties of the hop to plant, two things are regarded in Great Britain—the flavor and the time of maturing. The strong growers are usually the largest hearers, but have not that delicacy of aroma that is found in smaller and less prolific varieties. In large plantations, where the picking season should be long, such varieties are selected as will give different times of matur ity. In preparing to plant, it is best to bed in the spring the necessary sets, for by the fall they will have attained a year's growth, and whether they are set out in the fall, or in the following spring, it will be so much time gained. Then they are more certain to grow, will require a less number in the hill, and give much less trouble dur ing the first year's growth after being planted. In Great Britain it is usual to plant in raised hills. But there the climate is moist ; here the extreme droughts dry them too much. Hence, level cul tivation, generally, has superseded hill cultiva tion, and the hop plant should not he an excep tion. In setting the plants, manure should not be put in the hill, especially new, unfermented barn yard manure, but a richer soil may be added, if the ground is not rich. The roots of the sets should be spread out carefully, fine mold put around them, the soil pressed firmly, and the earth heaped over them. Each hill should have two - poles. In England, the number is deter mined by the kind of hop. The Farnham, Canter bury white bines and the Gold ings are strong grow ers, and require large poles, from fourteen to twenty feet long. The Grape varieties are smaller, and need poles not exceeding ten to fourteen feet in length. As to the number of poles in Great Britain to the hill, the Cycloptedia of Agriculture says: When there are about 1,200 hills on an acre, and the poles all eighteen feet long and upwards, we should recommend two to each hill; with sixteen feet poles, every third hill to have three; with fourteen feet, alternately two and three poles; with twelve feet poles, three to each hill. But in this country, where ground is not so valuable as in England, a lesser number should be used, that more air and sunlight may be allowed, to lessen the evil of mold, and give greater vigor to the plant when held back by the aphis. The poles should be sharpened with a regular taper, and holes for them made by a heavy crowbar; and when two are in a hill they should he about a foot apart, the tops inclining somewhat apart, to give more room to each top, and prevent the branches from intertwining. The strongest poles should be selected for the outside, especially for that part of the plantation most exposed to heavy winds. In the spring the num ber of bines to each pole is selected. These should not be more than two; but it is best when the wire-worm is apprehended to reserve two more against their depredations, and until danger to them is past. The bine should be fastened to the poles, as their growth advances, with woolen yarn ; and it is hest when unraveled from a stocking, as it is more elastic. The grounds should he kept free of weeds or grass, and the hills almost level. The Mites should be sup ported the first season on small poles, so that their better growth may he encouraged. In the spring following, the grounds should be well and deeply broken up, as soon as the soil is in a proper condition. Care should be taken not to do this when it is too wet. The furrow should be thrown from the hill, and the hill itself care fully weeded and pulverized. either with the cultivator or the hoe. The land should be leveled in the subsequent plowings with the cul tivator. No better general directions can be given than to say that the hop should receive equal cultivation with the corn. A clean, mel low soil must he maintained. How to do this will require less or greater labor, according to the season, and the cultivation will be modified by it. Sometimes the cultivator is all that is needed after the first breaking up ; at other times, when heavy, soaking rains have compacted the soil, it will be necessary to loosen with deeper working implements. Every operation demanded by the season should be performed in due time, and the more unfavorable the season is, the more cheerfully should be the labor given ; for, in the cultivation of the hop, more than in all other crops, is the proverb true, that the hand of the diligent maketh rich. In such years, says Mr.

Mainwaring, it will far better requite the labor bestowed, yielding a better price, by reason of their scarcity, than in fruitful years,when almost every ground produces hops. Industry and ingenuity are most encouraged and best rewarded at such times, but ignorance and sloth come off with loss. When the hops begin to change their color from green to brown, and emit a fragrant odor, they are ripe. Mr. Rouse says that the hop should be in full perfection before it is picked, and this is known when the seed has changed from a bright straw color to a pale brown, and emits a fra grant smell. Morton says : A hop may be consid ered ripe when it becomes hard and crisp to the touch ; when the extreme petal projects in a promi nent manner at the tip of the hop ; when the color is changed from a light silvery green, to a deep primrose or yellow; and when, on opening the flower, the cuticle of the seeds is of a purple color, and the kernel, or seed itself, hard, like a nut. Even after the hop has attained a lightish brown color no real injury to its quality will have accrued, and, for many purposes, such hops are most esteemed in the market ; but, after the hops generally attain a dark brown hue, a great loss, both in quality and weight, will be sustained. It is better to begin early than late in picking; but care must be observed lest the pick ing may commence too early. When in a proper stage of ripeness, four pounds of undried hops will make one of dry, and five pounds, scarcely ripe, are required to make one when dried. The hop, then, it will be seen, does not admit of a lengthened harvest, and hence, the hop-grower should timely secure all necessary aid; and that aid, when promised, under no circumstances should fail, as it so often does, in the harvesting of other crops. In England, the hops are com monly picked in large boxes, containing from twenty-four to forty bushels. These boxes are divided lengthwise by a thin partition, and then sub-divided into quarters. They are raised a little from the ground, and have handles at the ends to facilitate their removal from place to place, as may be desirable. One man and four girls are allowed to each box. Each girl deposits the hops she picks in her own division of the box. An industrious hand can pick twenty bushels in a day without difficulty. It is the business of the man to supply the boxes with poles, which he raises from the ground as needed, cutting the vines about a foot high ; to see that the picking is properly done, to remove the empty poles, clear them of the vines, and stack them in a systematic manner. In picking, the hops should , be kept free from stems and leaves, and all blasted or immature ones should be rejected. The boxes should be emptied at least once a day ; at all events, no hops should be left in them over night. Three-fourths of the weight of the hops are water. So large an amount in so much bulk, and to which the air penetrates, demands that the drying should at once follow the pick ing, or heating and fermentation, when in bulk, will speedily follow. The hop house, or kiln, should be of a size proportionate to the quantity of hops to be cured, so that they may not accu mulate on hand. To avoid this; it will generally be necessary to keep the kiln heated both day and night. It is commonly built of an oblong form, and of two stories, the lower part being occupied by the kiln and the press-room, and the upper part by the drying-floor over the kiln, and by a room of about an equal size for storing the dried hops, which will, of course, be over the press-room. Kilns are sometimes built of bricks or stone, of a circular form, with a round opening in the apex of the roof, surmounted by a movable cowl, or swinging ventilator, to enable the vapor of the drying hops to escape easily. If the building is of wood, the sides of the kiln should be lined with brick work, or thoroughly lathed and plastered. It is found to be most convenient and economical to heat it with stoves, from two to four of which will be necessary, according to the size of the kiln. The dry ing-floor should be ten feet from the ground, that there may be no danger of scorching the hops in drying. This floor is formed_ of slats about one and a half inch each in width, and the same distance from each other. They are covered with a strong, coarse cloth, of open texture, so as to admit of a free trans mission of the heated air from the kiln below. The drying-room should be of comfortable height for a person to work in it, and the sides should be lathed and plastered, that there may be no irregularity of the heat in different portions of the room during high winds. A good ventilator should be provided in the roof,. as described above. Openings should be left in the walls near the bottom of the kiln to admit fresh air from without, the draught to be regulated by means of flues, or sliding doors. The cloth for the drying-floor should be well stretched over the slats and firmly nailed. On this floor the hops are spread to the depth of six or eight inches. The proper thickness will depend some what on the condition of the hops; if they are very full of moisture, they should be laid on quite thin ; but if gathered when fully ripe, and in fine weather, a depth of ten inches will be allowed. The great object, says Mr. Morton, with the hop-drier is to get rid of the condensed vapor from the green hops as quickly as possible, and the dry-houses should be so constructed as to effect this object perfectly. It must be borne in mind that hops should be dried by currents of heated air passing rapidly through them, and not by radiation of heat. This is a _distinction of the utmost importance, since success is entirely dependent upon a strict adherence to the former principle. In order to accomplish this effect, the space above the hops must be kept hot, and all the lower parts of the kiln cold, whereby the greater density of the cold air will force the rarified air above, carrying with it the vapor from the hops, through the aperture or cowls upon the summit of the building. To aid this ascent of the heated air passing through the hops, a stream of heated air is sometimes thrown above the hops through a tube, thus adding greatly to the heat of the current passing through the hops, and giving it a greater ascending power. The hops being spread as evenly as possible, the fires are immediately kindled in the kiln, and the tem'perature regulated to one uniform degree of heat. This, however, may be quite high at first, as there will be at that time but little danger of scorching the hops if the floor is sufficiently high. If the hops are rusty, or discolored from any other cause, it is usual to burn a little sul phur under them, which will bring them to a uniform appearance. This is done as soon as the hops are well warmed through, and feel somewhat moist. Great prejudice formerly existed against the use of sulphur in drying hops; but no objection is now made to it by the brew ers, and it is generally thought that the use of it improves the appearance of all hops, and that it also facilitates the drying. During the drying process the fires should be kept up, and there should be a free supply of fresh air below, suffi cient to keep up a regular succession of heated air from the kiln, passing through the hops and out at the ventilator, carrying with it the vapor expelled from the drying hops. This will be found far preferable to a still, dead heat. As soon as the upper part of the hops appears to have felt the fire, the lower part may be con sidered as nearly dry, and will rattle , little. The heap may then be turned. Before this is done the heat should be suffered to abate a little, and increased again after the turning is finished. I am aware that many do not turn their hops while drying, nor suffer them to be disturbed at all until they are ready to be removed from the floor. Still, the better opinion, I think, is in favor of turning as tending to facilitate the dry ing and render it more perfect by the more effectually exposing every portion of the mass to the action of the heated current of air, than would be the case were they allowed to remain as at first deposited on the floor, containing many inequalities in density even when the utmost care is exercised in their distribution. If turned at the right time, and in a careful manner, there need be no injury done to the hops. When sufficiently dried they should be allowed to cool off a little, if time can be afforded, otherwise there will be great danger that they will break in moving, or a portion of them shell off and waste. Ten or twelve hours are required to dry a kiln of hops. Two kilns may be dried in twenty-four hours by keeping the heat up through the night. A twenty-foot kiln will thus dry 400 bushels in a day, as they come from the vines, making about 750 pounds of hops when dry. Let not the heat slacken, but rather increase it, till the hops are nearly dried, lest the moisture and sweat which the fire has raised fall back and discolor the hops. For these reasons chiefly it is that no cool air should be suffered to come into the kiln while the hops are drying. After the hops have lain about seven, eight, or nine hours, having left off sweating, and leap up when beaten with a stick, then turn them with a malt shovel or scoop made for that purpose; let them remain in this situation for two or three hours more, till every hop is equally dried. They must not be turned while they sweat, for that will scorch and cause them to lose their color; the fire may be diminished a little before they are turned, and renewed again afterwards; the heat should be kept as equal as possible. It may be of service to make use of a thermometer, by marking upon it the degree of heat proper for drying hops, as soon as that degree is ascertained by experiment. Mistakes are often exceedingly detrimental to the hops, and great attention is required by the drier, night and day, until fin ished. When they are thoroughly dry, which is known by the brittleness of the inner stalk, (if rubbed and it breaks short,) the fire should be put out, and the hops taken from the kiln into the cooling-room. Here they should be spread out not exceeding twelve inches in depth, and in a day or two will be ready to bale. Care should be taken to exclude a drying air from the cool ing-room. The hops being dried, the next pro cess is to hale them. This should not be done immediately after they are taken from the kiln, but they should be allowed to lie a few days in the store-room till they become a little softened, otherwise their extreme brittleness will cause them to be much broken in baling, and the sample be thereby greatly injured. The bales should be of a symmetrical and convenient form, and should contain about 200 pounds. They are formed in a box or bin prepared for the purpose, in the press-room, of such shape as will give the desired size and form. Across the bottom and sides of this box the baling cloth is first laid, and the hops are then let down into it from above and trodden down as they are dropped in until it is filled. Another cloth is then carried over the top, a follower applied, and the screws of the press turned down upon it until the whole is brought into a compact mass. The box is then taken apart, the cloth neatly secured around the bale, the screws are run up, the bale taken out, and the ends cased, when it may be con sidered finished, and the same process is repeated in forming another.