Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-10-08


This years hop crop, which has just been
gathered in, is said to be very good both in
amount and quality, New York has been,
and is still, we believe, the greatest hop grow
ing State in tho Union the hop region being
in the central part, and confined mainly to
four or FIVE counties New England raises a
good many hops so do the Western States.
The hops produced on the Pacific slope, es-
pecially in California, Oregon, and Washing
ton Territory, are exceptionally fine, COM
mand extra prices, and are an important
branch Of agriculture. II is estimated that
the crop, very variable one, will yield this
year from 10000 to 1870, 900 bales. The
Pacific States have been unusually prolific
this season, yielding more than twice as
much to the acre as the Eastern or Middle
States. England has carried hop culture
higher than any other country, and boasts Of
having the best hops in the world. There
we're, in 1873, nearly $4,000 acres in hop
fields, Of which more than 40, 600 acres lay in
Kent, and most Of the remainder in Sussex,
hereford, and Hampshire. Although Eng
land sometimes imports hops from the Unit
cd States she generally sends us from 10000
to $4,000 hundred-weight annually. Hops
were first raised in England, so far as known,
during the reign Of Henry VIII, about 1924,
the English having learned from the inhabi-
tants Of the old French Province Of Artois that
hops kept beer from fermentation and gave
IL pleasant bitter flavor. Ordinarily, they
produce hops enough to supply all their
breweries but the crop there as well as here
is very uncertain, and, in bad years, they buy
hops in Belgium, as well as from us. The
American hops have the reputation abroad of
a rank, peculiar flavor but they have been
much improved of late by assiduous cultiva-
ton, especially in the far West. Bavarian
hops are now considered the very best, the
method of drying them there preserving the
native aroma TO a remarkable degree. Hence
the great fame of the Bavsrian beer. An
enormous quantity of hops is employed here
in making lager beer, the consumption Of
which steadily increases, while the consump-
ton of ale has for years been rapidly dimin-
ishing They are also used in medicine as a
tonic, and in some of the Western States are
considered by physicians as an excellent sub
stitute for quinine in certain febrile cases.
The tincture of hops is moderately narcotic,
and they are often applied as poultices and
taken as sedstives. Country folk think that
pillow of hops is remedy for restlessness,
because in nervous troubles it conduces, in
their opinion, to refreshing sleep. The young
shoots of the hop are occasionally eaten, be-
ing prepared like asparagus. The strong and
flexible fbres Of the vine have been woven in
to coarse cloth, out of which sacks have been
made for sending hops to market. The hop
suffers greatly from mildew and from various
insects, the most hurtful of which are the
hop flea, not quite one-tenth of an inch long,
and the hop-hy, or plant-louse. The fly is
the chief destroyer of the vine, causing the
difference between the crop of one year and
another, and the marked variations in price.
As yet no way has been discovered of arrest
ing its ravages.