HOP
H O R
them contain plants enough for twenty poles to each. Too great a humber of pole;., and too high ones, are equally in- jurious to the growth of the Hops. It is much better to err in having them too ihort, or too few in number. Mortimer's Husbandry j p, ij$.
Some plant Hops in March and April; but the moil expe- rienced people prefer the month of October, becaufe they will then ftrike firm roots, and be very ftrong and vigorous againft fpring. The largeft plants are to be chofen, and it is belt to procure them from fome rich ground, where the hills have been laid high ; they {hould be about eight or ten inches long, and have three or four joints or buds a-piece. The holes for planting them are to be dug eight or ten inches deep, and about a foot over ; and in each of thefe holes four plants are to be fet, one in each corner. They may be covered an inch deep over the top, if planted in October; hut if in fpring, when they have {hot from the joints, then they muft not be buried. After this the ground mult be kept carefully clear of weeds.
If the Hop-ground be poor and exhaufted, it fhould be dref- (td in winter, and the earth about the hills dug away, and frefh and well manured foil put in its place ; but if the ground be in good heart, it is better to drefs it in fpring; and if this be done as late as in April, it is {till the better, as it kills the weeds beft of all, and prevents the too early {hooting of the Hops, which often proves a very great mifchief to them. Dre£jhig of Hops. This is preparing the ground in winter and fpring, for the making a good fummer crop. In doing this, the hills upon which the plants ftand, muft be all pulled down, and undermined on every fide, till the fpade comes near the principal root ; then {hake off, or remove with the hand, the ioofe mould from the upper or younger roots, that you may fee where the new roots grow out of the old fets. The old fets are to be carefully preferved, but the other roots may be cut away. Whatever time the hills are pulled down, the roots muft not be cut till March.
When the young Hops are dreifed for the firft time, all the roots are to be cut away that grew the year before ; and the fets are to be cut off within one inch of the fame, and every year after they muft be cut as clofc as can be to the ojd roots : but to a weak Hop, fome of the (hoots are to be left at the drefling. The not obferving this fingle article has been the ruin of many a .£fy»-garden, that might elfe have ftourifhed. Thofe roots of the plants which grow downward are never to to be injured, but only thofe which run horizontally are to be cut. The old roots and the young ones may be ea- fily diftinguifhed, in that the old ones arc always red, and the young white. If there are, by accident, any wild Hops got among the reft, the places where they grow are to be marked with fticks, or otherwife, at the time of their being gathered, and after this, at the time of drefling the ground, that whole hill is to be deftroyed, and a new one made with new ■plants, in the room of the old ones. When the roots are cut and dreffed, the rich compoft is to be put to them, and the hills muft not be made too high at firft, left they hinder the young fhoots. If the Hops arc fpringing out of the hills, it is always proper to cut them off in the drefling ; and one very neceflary caution to the owner, is, that all poultry, but efpe- cially geefe, are to be kept off the ground. In a dry fpring, where there is water near the ground, the hills fhould be well watered feveral times ; and if the fummer prove very dry and fcorching, it may be proper to water them once or twice, at diftant times, and to lay parings of the earth on the hills, and dead weeds over thati, to keep the roots of the plants moift. The Hops blow in the latter end of July, and in the beginning of Auguft they bell, and they are fometimes ripe at the beginning of September, fometimes later. When they begin to change colour, and are eafily pulled to pieces, and their feeds look brown within them, they are ripe, and they are then to be gathered as quick as poflible, for the leaft blaft of wind will hurt them at this time, and one ftormy day may do vaft mifchief. Mortimer's Hufbandry, p. 179.
The manner of gathering Hops, is to take down four hills ftand ing together in the midft of the garden, and to cut the roots even with the ground ; then lay the ground level, and when it is fwept clean, it makes a kind of floors, on which the Hops may be laid and picked. The Hop plants are firft unwound from the poles, and then the people fit round the clear place, and pick off the Hops into bafkets. Another way yet more expeditious, is to make a frame with four ■ftiort poles, or fticks, laid on four forks driven into the ground, of fuch a bignefs as to be covered with a hair cloth of the kiln, or a blanket tacked about the edges. On thefe the poles are laid, with the plants on them, and the people pick the Hops into the blanket. This blanket is removed when full, and the whole frame is ealily removed from one part of the ground to another, as they clear away the plants. When the ground is large, it is proper to erect a little fhed to ftielter the people employed in picking, and to keep the cut Hops in, for them to work upon in a morning before the dew is off from the others. The Hops {hould never
be gathered wet j but if any dew hangs upon them, the poles are to be fhaken to throw it, in part, off; but if the Hops are ever fo little too ripe, there is danger of their {beti- ding their feeds by this making, and U is very well known, that their principal ftrength is in their feeds. They will alfo lofe their green colour, and look brownifti, which will take off from their value in the market. Some of the people who raifc them, bear with this inconvenience, however, to pre- vent a greater ; and as Hops wafte much more in the drying, when gathered green, than when more fully ripe, they let them hang on the plants till brown ; in this cafe four pound of Hops yield one pound dry, whereas, when gathered green, five pound make only one when dried ; and they get more by the advantage in weight, than they lofe by the colour. Some leave pieces of the ftalks, and fragments of the leaves, among them, in the picking ; but this is very bad policy, for much more is loft by this, in the price, than is gained in the quantity. Care fhould be taken to dry the Hops as faft as they are picked, for in lying undried they are apt to heat and change colour very quickly. If the quantity picked be fo large, that the kiln in which they are to be dried is over flocked, they muft be fpread thin upon a floor, and they will keep two or three days in that manner without any harm. Indeed, where the quantity is but fmall, there is no need to have recourfe to the kiln at all, for they will dry much better than any other way, by being fpread thin upon a floor, and often turned. The drying of Hops is the moft material part of their manufacture, for if they be ill dried, they lofe all their agreeable fla- vour ; and great caution muft be ufed, that they be all equally dried, for one pound of ill dried Hops, mixed among a large parcel of thofe which are ever fo well dried, will fpoil all the reft. Bagging of Hov 5, a term ufed by our farmers, who cultivate Hops, for the laft thing they have to do with them, in order to bring them to market ; that is, the putting them up in large bags of coarfe cloth for carriage. When the Hops have been picked, and dried in the ooft or tin floor, they are fo brittle that they would break to pieces, and be fpc'iled, if they were immediately put up ; they are therefore to lie to- gether three weeks, or thereabouts, that they may become tough. If they are covered from the air with blankets, in the heap, they may be bagg'd much fooner than if left open. The manner of bagging them is this : A hole is made in an upper floor, fo large that a man may eafily go up and down it, then a hoop is fitted to the mouth of the bag, and fo firmly fewed on, that it cannot be torn off. The bag is then let down thro' the hole, and the hoop remaining above, flops it from being pulled quite through, being larger than the hole; A few Hops are to be thrown firft into the bag, and a perfon below is to take up a parcel of thefe in each corner of the bag, tying it up with packthread. This makes a fort of toffel, by which the bags are afterwards the eafier managed, and turned about. When this is done, one man muft go down into the bag, and while another cafts in the Hops, he muft tread them down equally every way with his feet. When the bag is in this manner filled, the top is to be unripped from the hoop, and fown up, leaving two toffels at the corners, as at the bottom. A bag of Hops, thus prepared, may be kept feveral years, in a dry place, only taking care that the mice do not get into it. Thefe creatures will not eat the Hops, but they make their nefts in them, and fpoil them. Many a fair bag has been deftroyed this way.
The harder the Hops are trodden in the bag, the better they will keep. The bags in which they are packed are made of a coarfe linnen cloth ; four ells and a half of that which is ell wide, makes a bag to contain about two hundred and a half of Hops, or fomething more. Hop Poles. See the article Poles.
HGR./EA, 'Qpueij in antiquity, folemn facrifices, confifting of fruits, &c. offered in fpring, fummer, autumn, and win- ter, that heaven might grant mild and temperate weather. Thefe, according to Meuifius, were offered to the goddcifes, called 'ft'gai, 1. e. hours, who were three in number, at- tended upon the fun, prefided over the four feafons of the year, and had divine worfhip paid them at Athens. Potter. Archaeol. Grsec. 1. 2. c. 20. T. 1. p. 439. HORCUS Lapis, the name of a ftonc, mentioned by the writers of the middle ages as ufeful in foldering filver and other metals. All the defcription they give of it, is, that it was black, and was eafily reduced to powder. It was called alfo catemia. HORDEUM, Bar/ey. In the Linnsean fyftem of botany, this is fhewn to be a diftincf genus of plants, the characters of which are thefe : The calix, or cup, is a partial covering, made up of fix leaves, and containing three flowers. The leaves are ftrait, pointed, and erect, and are two of them placed under every flower. There is, in this genus, no glume. The flower is compofed of two valves ; the under one is bel- lied, angular, and ovally pointed ; this is longer than the cup, and is terminated by a very long be:ird or awn -, the other is fmaller, and is flat and pointed. The ftamina are three ca- pillary filaments, ihorter than the flower ; the anthers are oblong; the germen of the piftil is oval, and fomewhat
turbinated i
