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Show HOP. pale bright green colour. 817 ‘The oval hop is beautiful, but does not bring so large a crop. Thereis a sort of white hop, called the early or rath hop, which ripens a week or ten days before the common, andis therefore of advantage to those who would be first at market: but it is more tender, and does not bear so plentifully. The long square garlic hopis the greatest bearer, more hardy, and somewhat later ripe than the former; but, by reason of its redness towards the stalk, it is not so much esteemed as the othersorts. Towards thelatter end of July hops begin to blossom, about the beginning of August they bell, and, in forward years, they are sometimes ripe at the end of August, or beginning of Sep« tember. When they begin to change colour, or are easily pulled to pieces, when they emit a fragrant smell, and when their seeds begin to look brown and grow hard, they may beconsidered as ripe: then pick them with all expedition ; for a storm of wind will do them great mischief at this time; and hops picked green and bright, without bruising or discolouring, will sell for a third more than those that are otherwise. When the poles are drawn up in order to be picked, the none: iré coes against the 1, heart-shaped, r cones three-lobec vines around them should be cut asunder at the height of about three or four feet from the ground; for the cutting of them lower, especially while the hops are green, would occasio n so great a flowing of the sap, as would weaken and hurt the rvot. If the poles stick so fast in the groundas not to be taken up without difficulty, and hazard of breaking them, they should be taised by a piece of wood in the nature of a lever, having a forked piece of iron, with teeth on theinside, fastened within two feet of the end. The most convenient way of picking themis, into a long S ovate, a yell square frame of wood, called a bin. This frame is made of two poles, or pieces of wood, each nine or ten feet long, and three 1ists allow but of one white, the oval, I 1 otherin olour and bearing, and in their time of ripenin x, ‘The long white is most valued, because it is a great be arer, and produces the mostt beau. tiful hops ; for the beauty of hops consists in their being of a or four inches thick, joined together at about a foot and a half from each end, by two other pieces three feet long, and supported by four legs three fect and a half high, so that there re- mains in the middleof it a space of six feet long, three wide, and three and a half deep. In this space is fixed a coarse linen cloth, or hop bag, cut open on oneside, and hung hollow, either by hitching it on tenter-hooks along the inside of the frame, or by Stitching it on the outside with wooden skewers, to receive the hops as they are picked. Three men or women, orfour 3G |