The cost of cultivating 1 acre of hops is thus stated :—Yearly charge for poles, 51. ; ploughing down, 10s. ; digging slips, or portion not ploughed, 5s.; cutting, picking up and burying roots, 4s. ; spreading poles, 2s.; pitching or setting poles, 12s.; tying, 8s.; nidgeting or scuffling 4 times, 11.; harrowing 4 times, 6s.; forking round hills, and Wiling up, 5s.; stripping and piling poles, 8s.; resharpening broken poles, 3s.; ploughing up before winter, 10s.; manuring with 20 loads dung at 8s., 81.; summer manuring, 41.; ladder tying, 2s.; total, 211. 15s. By digging instead of plough ing, 15s. more will be added. The cost often risen as high as 351. an acre for the whole culture and harvesting of the crop, and in some cases even to 601. The returns are exceedingly unreliable, ranging from 1 to 13 cwt. an acre. A plantation should last at least 20 years, and some gardens have been in existence over 300 years.
The bop-plant is found wild, especially in thickets on the banks of streams, throughout Europe, from Spain, Sicily, and Greece, to Scandinavia, extending also to the Caucasus, the S. Caspian region, and through Central and S. Siberia, to the Altai Mountains. It has been intro duced into India, N, America, Brazil, and the Australian Colonies. The cultivation in the United Kingdom was distributed in 1875 as follows :— Kent, 43,614 acres ; Sussex, 11,360; Hereford, 5984; Hants, 3059; Worcester, 2468 ; Surrey, 2313; other districts, 373; total, 69,171. In Continental Europe, hops aro most largely produced in Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, Belgium, and France. The esti mated area occupied by them in 1876 was :—Germany, 94,775 acres (Bavaria, 52,000 ; Wiirtem berg, 12,500 ; Baden, 4000); Austria, 19,277 ; Belgium, 16,250; France, 10,000 ; the remainder of Europc,1547. In 1877, Vienna exported 21,816 metric eentners (of 110} lb.) ; in 1878, 15,520 ; in 1879, 28,772. Antwerp, in 1878, exported 629,352 kilo to England.
Laudable efforts have been made for some time past to establish hop-growing in Cashmere and in the Himalayas, and there is fair prospect of ultimate succesa. In the United States, the culture has a pretty wide distribution. The crop of 1874 was estimated as follows :—New York, 50,000 bales ; Wisconsin, 22,000; California, 5000; Michigan, 5000; other states, 15,000; total, 97,1.00. The total estimate for 1879 was 110.000 hales ; and for 1880, 120,000-125,000. In Canada, foists interfere much with the crop. The cultivation started in the colony of San Leopoldo, in the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul, promises well. In Tasmania, hop-growing is now a well-established and thriving industry ; and Victoria, South Australia, and New Zealand are not far behind.
Tho scarcity of hops in unfavourable seasons, and their high price at all times, has led to their frequent adulteration and to many substitutes being proposed for them. Among the adulterants are found many plants possessing powerful and even poisonous properties, while others communi cate only a strong hitter flavour. As substitutes, principally two plants have been suggested, and
experimentally used :—(1) The fruit of the shrubby trefoil (Ptelea trifoliata), said, both France and America, to give an amber ale possessing a flavour quite equal to that of Strasburg beer ; and (2) the leaves of the bog-bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), gathered in spring, and dried in the shade, used in Germany. Neither possesses all the valuable properties of the hop.
Besides our own production of hops, we import largely ; our imports in 1879 were the United States, 108,306 cwt., 496,8861. ; Belgium, 63,485 cwt., 262,3721.; Germany, 50,567 cwt., 237,6181. ; Holland, 26,796 cwt., 162,5181. ; France, 9234 cwt., 41,4621. ; British N. America, 3813 cwt., 14,5961. ; other countries, 564 owt., 4861.; total, 262,765 cwt., 1,217,9381. The prices fluc tuate exceedingly; the approximate relative values in the London market are : —Kent, 41. 10s.-111. a cwt. ; Sussex, 41. 10s.-101.10a. ; Farnham, 61.-111.15s. ; Farnham country, 61.-11/. 11s. ; American, 81.-111.; Belgian, 41.-51. ; old, all kinds, 11.-31. 10s.
HORN (Fa., Come; GER., Horn).
The term " horn " is generally applied to any hard body projecting from the head of an animal, terminating in a point, and serviceable as a weapon. Technically, horns consist of very different substances, and belong to two organic systems, as distinct from each other as either is from the teeth. The horns of deer consist of bone, and are processes of the frontal bone ; those of the giraffe are independent bones or "epiphyses," covered by hairy skin ; those of oxen, sheep, and antelopes are " apophyses" of the frontal bone, covered by "corium," and by a sheath of true horny material; only the horns of the rhinoceros are composed entirely of horny matter, which is dis posed in longitudinal fibres, so that the horn seems rather to consist of coarse bristles compactly matted together in the form of an elongated sub-compressed cone. It is curious that the horns of wild animals are always more fully developed than in domesticated races, and that with all our im provements in the breeding of cattle, no advance has been made in the size or texture of the horns.
Horns are rendered eminently applicable to a number of purposes by reason of their toughness, elasticity, and flexibility, together with their property of softening under heat, and their capa bilities of being welded and moulded into various forms under pressure. The immense horns the African ox, or Cape buffalo, of the Java buffalo, and of the Arnee buffalo of India, are the most valuable. About one-fifth of our imports of these horns is used for making combs, and knife and cutlass-handles, while a amall portion is converted into shoe-lifts, scoops, cattle-drenches, drinking-cups, &c. The solid born tips and the hoofs of cattle are made into buttons (see Buttons).