The Press.
London, England, 1853-09-17 00:00:00

THE HOP HARVEST.

Tor produce of hol►s this year will not, it is
supposed, be above half an average trop. Wo
may expert, therefore, that prices %rill rule
high, and that a larger quantity than usual
of poisonous drugs will be used in the notion-
faeture of I►eer.

The cultivation of the hop is peculiar. and
forms a most beautiful feature in the land-
scape of the districts where it flourishes. A
luxuriant hop garden, with its long alleys of
rich verdure, diminishing hi perspective to a
point, and its graceful festoons of delieatAy-
tinted hops, hanging in gay luxuriance from
the tall poles in grape-like clusters. presents a
charming picture to the eye, and suggests
some reflections of a pleasing nature to the

......
The successful growth of the hop requi►es
great care and intelligence, and affords far
more employment to lal►our than any other
kind of cultivation. Continuous labour is
atii►rded by the hop plantation through three-
fourths of the year ; and, when picking coin-
metwes, every family in the district experiences
the benefit of ample work and wages.
So far as we have observed. the labourers in
hop districts are better paid and more con-
stantly employed thin► in localities where the
culture is unknown.

If a foreigner. a week or two hence, were to
be taken from one hop garden to another, and
were to observe the appearance of happy in-
dustry which the grounds present. men,
WOMPII, and children being all gaily employed
in the light labour of stripping the fragrant
bunches from the bine—and then were to be
told that the culture of this useful and beauti-
ful plant is checked by arbitrary laws, his
confidence in the wisdom of our policy would
be rudely shaken ; and were he further to be
informed that while confessedly no substance
equal to the hop for making beer wholesome..-.
for preserving its sound and nutritive quali-
ties, and for imparting to it an agreeable fla-
vour—yet that.. by a system of high duties and
obnoxious excise rules, it is made so dear that
pernicious drugs are taking its place, ho would
have some difficulty in believing that such an
action could take place in a country which
boasted of its free Legislature and the force of
public opinion.
It is worth notice that the number of acres
under hop cultivation at the present time is
less than it was thirty years ago, while the
Consumption of those divas which are wholly
or partially used as a substitute for the hop
has enormously increased.
In the three years ending 1821 the average
number of acres under hop cultivation was
48.002; in the three years ending 1838 it was
55.583 in the three years ending 1851 it had
declined to .134Q3. Some years back, as we
find by the Lancet, " only 550 lbs. of the
" poisonous and intensely bitter drug as:
" romica were imported into England. whereas
" in 1852 nearly as many tons reached our mar-
" ket." A correspondent of our medical con-
temporary asks the cause of this increase. It
is to be timid. we apprehend. in the present
comparative scarcity of hops, and the enor-
mously.inereased consumption of pale or
bitter ale.
NVe do not insinuate that any noxious sub-
stance is used in this particular kind of beer
it may very likely—as is asserted—be brewed
from malt and hops alone ; but. if this be so.
an enormous quantity of hops must be re-
quired in its manufacture alone. and other
descriptions of beer, less expensive, must suffer
front the deficiency.