In the preparation of hemp for the manufacturer two modes are pursued. One of these is to spread it out on stubble or pasture ground, that the fibrous parts may be rendered separable by the gradual operation of the weather; the other is to immerse the bundles, for some days, in stagnant water. The next process consists in separating the bark, or hemp, from the stalks: this is effected either by pulling out the stalk with the hand, or by machinery similar to that adopted in the preparation of flax ([97]). After some other operations the hemp is beaten in mills, and then combed or dressed by drawing it through instruments called hackles, which are somewhat similar to the combs of wool-manufacturers.
Thus prepared, the hemp is spun into thread, which is made into twine, ropes, and cordage of every description; and woven into canvas, and strong cloth of various kinds. Indeed so great is the importance of this production, particularly for the cordage, cables, and the rigging of ships, that, to encourage its growth, an act of parliament was passed in 1783, directing a bounty of three pence per stone to be paid on all hemp raised in Great Britain; and imposing heavy duties on hemp imported from foreign countries.
From hemp-seed a valuable kind of oil is procured, by pressure, which is peculiarly adapted for burning, as it is perfectly limpid and without smell: it is also used for making the soap called green soap. The seeds themselves are sometimes employed in the feeding of poultry, from a notion that they cause the hens to lay a greater number of eggs than they otherwise would do. They are also given as food to singing birds; but, if in great quantity, they are supposed to injure the plumage. The stalks, after the hemp is taken from them, afford an excellent fuel. The water in which hemp has been soaked is in a high degree poisonous.
260. HOPS are the dried flower-buds of a climbing British plant (Humulus lupulus, Fig. 81), with a rough and angular stem, and leaves generally in three or five lobes or divisions, and serrated.
Although hops grow wild, in great abundance, on hedges in several parts of the south of England, there is reason to suppose that their use was first made known from the Continent in the reign of Henry the Eighth.
A hop plantation requires the growth of some years before it is in perfection. The plants begin to push up their young stems about the month of April. When these are three or four inches above the ground, poles about twenty feet high are driven in to support them during their growth. The season for picking hops usually commences about the middle of September. This work is performed by men, women, and children. Proper baskets, bins, or cribs being in readiness, the plants are cut off close to the ground, and the poles are drawn up. These are placed upon the bins, with the plants upon them, and three or more persons on each side, pick off the hops. After this they are dried in a kiln, and, when dry, are carried into, and kept, for five or six days, in an apartment called the stowage-room, until they are in a state to be put into bags. This is done through a round hole, or trap, cut in the floor of the stowage-room, exactly equal in dimensions to the mouth of the bag, and immediately under which this mouth is fastened. In each of the lower corners of the bag a small handful of hops is tied; and a person, called the packer, places himself in it, and, by a heavy leaden weight, which he constantly moves round in the places where he is not treading, presses and forces the hops down, in a very close manner, into the bag, as fast as they are thrown to him by another labourer. The work thus proceeds till the bag is quite full, when each of the upper corners has a few hops tied in it, in the same manner as those at the bottom. These serve as handles for moving the bags. The bag is then taken away, and its mouth is properly sewed up and secured.
The hops of finest colour and best sample are put into bags of finer manufacture than the others, under the denomination of pockets; and the inferior sorts are packed in canvas of coarser kind, called bags.
When the hop-picking is completed, the poles are cleared from the binds or plants which adhered to them, and are stacked or piled together. The binds, when perfectly dried, are either stacked or placed in sheds, to be used as fuel in ovens, or otherwise. Sometimes they are burnt upon the land, for the ashes to serve as manure, trodden in the farm-yard, or allowed to be taken away by the labourers for their own use.
As the hop-plants are liable to be injured in various ways during their growth, they are considered a very precarious crop. They suffer from the attacks of insects, from honey-dew, from blight, from hot sunny weather after rain, and by winds and storms.
The principal use of hops, in brewing, is for the preservation of malt liquor, and to communicate to it an agreeably aromatic bitter flavour. The best hops are used for ale and the finer kinds of malt liquor, and inferior kinds are used for porter. The odour of hops hung over a bed, or a pillow stuffed with hops, has been said to promote sleep, after the application of opium has failed. The young shoots and tops are often gathered from the hedges, by poor people, and boiled and eaten in the manner of asparagus. Of the woody part of the hop-binds, after having been steeped in water, and worked into a pulp, a coarse kind of paper may be made.