We have quoted rather largely from Tusser’s poem, thinking that it may interest hop-growers of the present day.
Reynolde Scot’s appeal was not in vain, for in 1608 there is no doubt that hop plantations were fairly abundant, though the plant was not sufficiently cultivated for home consumption. In that year an Act was passed against the importation of spoilt hops. Until 1690, however, the greater part of supply was drawn from abroad, and then, to encourage home production, a duty of twenty shillings per cwt. over and above all other charges, was put upon those imported. Walter Blith, writing in 1643, speaks of hops as a “national commoditie.” In 1710, the duty of a penny per lb. was imposed upon all hops reared in England, and threepence on foreign hops. In subsequent years slight variations were made in the amount of the duty, and finally it was abolished, when hop-grounds at once began to increase.
When the duty was high, and hops scarce, substitutes for _Humulus lupulus_ were experimented with, among others, pine and willow bark, cascarilla bark, quassia, gentian, colocynth, walnut leaf, wormwood bitter, extract of aloes, cocculus indicus berries, capsicum, and others too numerous to mention, picric acid being perhaps the most modern. None of these have been found to be an equivalent for the hop, lacking its distinct and independent elements of activity.
So far we have treated solely of the somewhat chequered history of the hop. Let us now consider its merits and uses. Thus sang the poet:—
Lo! on auxiliary Poles, the Hops Ascending spiral, rang’d in meet array: { 80} Lo! how the arable with Barley-Grain Stands thick, o’er-shadow’d to the thirsty hind Transporting prospect!—_These,———_ _————infus’d an auburn Drink compose_ _Wholesome of Deathless Fame._
[Illustration: A Perfite Platform of a Hoppe Garden.
“It shall not be amisse nowe and then to passe through your Garden, having in eche Hande a forked wande, directyng aright such Hoppes as decline from the Poales.”
“Cutte them” (the hop stalkes) “a sunder wyth a sharpe hooke, and wyth a forked staffe take them from the Poales.” ]
But from poets we do not, as a rule, gather much practical information, except from such as worthy old Tusser. Harrison, in his description of England, says: “The continuance of the drinke is alwaie determined after the quantitie of the hops, so that being well hopped it lasteth longer.” A modern writer puts it thus: “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 are used for ale and the finer kinds of malt liquor, and inferior kinds are used for porter.”