HOPS. This useful plant, the Hunudas itipidni of Dinnreus, is extensively cultivated for the flowers or seed-vessels, which give fla vour and permanence to beer by being boiled with the wort in brewing. Hops were intro duced into England from Flanders about the year 1524. The most extensive plantations are in Kent...Sussex, and Hertfordshire; hut they are also. cultivated in Worcestershire, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Glo•cestershire,. Sur rey, and several other counties.
The hop is a slender climbing plant, which requires a very rich mellow soil and careful cultivation. The soil of a hop garden must be rich :to a considerable depth, or made so artificially. The young plants are raised in beds, and .may he raised from, seed ; but it is more usual: Ito plant the.young shoots which rise from the, bottom of the stems of of plants. The varieties most esteemed are the Grape Hop, the.White Vine, and the Golden Hop,. The ,young plants are placed in groups of three each,. aboutdsix inches asunder, in the midst. of prepared masses of soil about a yard asunder. A watering with liquid manure greatly assists their taking root, and they soon begin tp show bines. A stick three or four feet long is then. stuck in the middle of the three plants, and the bines are tied to this stick with twine or the shreds of Russia mats, till they lay hold and twine rdundit. During their .growth the ground is well hoed and forked up around the roots, and some of the fine mould is thrown around the stems. In favourable seasons a few hops may be picked from-these young plants in tho autumn, but in general there is nothing the first year. Early in November the ground is carefully dug with the spade,. and the earth, being turned towards the plants, is left so all the winter.
In the second year, early in spring, the hil locks around the plants are opened and the roots examined. The last year's shoots arc cut off within an inch of the main stem, and all the suckers quite close to it. A pole about twelve feet long is then firmly stuck into the ground near the plants ; to this the bines are led and tied as they shoot, till they have taken hold of it. The ground being well hoed and the earth raised round the plants, the produce this year will average 4 cwt. per acre if the season is favourable. In September the flower containing the seed will be of a fine straw co lour, turning to a brown ; it is then in perfec tion. No time should now he lost iu picking them. The hops when picked are dried on a hair cloth in a kiln. They are then laid in heaps on the floor, where they undergo a very slight heating. As soon as this is observed, they are bagged. This is clone bY pressing them into large bags suspended below a hole in the floor ; when sewed close and tight, the bag is stored in a dry place till the hops are wanted for sale. The crop of the third year will average 8 cwt. per acre, but will in some cases reach 15. • - '• r.'"- D.
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The occupation of hop-picking is a remark able one. ;'• There it not trvitilable•laboUr endugh in Kent and the other hop districts to pick all the-hops in the requisite time ; and hundreds of poor ;persons arrive - from other parts of the country, tO'aojourn for a fe,wdayt' or weeks ill; the hop districts; during' which , they are employed in picking the hops. •
The poles -arik•-an expentiVe article; thoSe of chestnut are the most durable, and also the dearest) r They; should be put Into a shed du ring winter ; or -else ber placed ou•end in the forin of a cone; leaning against each the use of hops in brewing, they produce a bitter infusion and; a tincture which are valuable in medicine for complaints in the stomach. — r ; The- number of acres of-Hops in England in ;1810 was 42,798 ; the tweikht of hops charged with .duty- was 10,050,915 -lbs., the duty on 'which was 144393/: .1n• that year 274,811 lbs. bops Were exported. The ex cise duty on British hops is1183.;8d. per cwt., and- 5 per cent. additional;. the) customs duty on imported foreignn-bops is as: per owt...The produce. in 1848 and in 1850 was very much larger- than in -1819 ; in,. the former year the- duty was 391,923/.; and in the latter 426,1911: • • Dr .• HORN: -This musical wind-instrument is of very ancient origin, and of various forms. The French horn, is a ;tube of about teni feet, very narrow at widening considerably -at the bottom, and bent in .rings for the conve nience of -the performer." It is not provided with -holes, as the flute,- &c.,;- the production of the various sounds depending uponthe dips of the player, the more or less pressure of his breath; and the insertion; of the hand in the bell, or wide end, of the instrument. and shifting -pieces are provided to adjust the instrument to' different keys or fundamental notes. --The Bugle Horu,is a tube of three feet -ten ,inches in- -length,• doubled up. in small compass.- The Keyed Bugle, or a Bugle horn with keys, is that now. in common use, the scale of which comprehends. about two oc taves, with the semitones:• The Covnopean and the Cornet-it-Pistons are improved modern forms of this instrument. The :Russian Horn is an unbent brass tube, conical in shape, of various dimensions : -the deepest toned is eight feet long, and nine- inches in diameter at the wide end, and the, highest is two inches and-a half in -length by one at the wide end. The former gives e, an octave below the first space in the base ; the latter gives a, the third midi tional line above thetreble. Some of these horns have keys; PrOdUeing one or two semi tones, but generally ever' note has its separate horn ; and a band of Russian Horns' counts almost as many individuals 'A diatonic notes in a scale of between four and fi've octaves. The English Horn, or Corno _Inglese, is a deep toned oboe,' of large dimensions,' somewhat bent, the loiver end very open, and is to the oboe-what the basset' hoin 18 to the :clarinet, or what the viola -is 'to the -violin. The tone of this instrument is bathetic, and by the Italian's is thought so much to resemble the human voice, that they sometimes call it the voce vnzeina.• ; • - • •