If we consider the nature of hops, which I shall take as an example, as
being prepared in this way on the largest scale, we shall find they
consist of three different principles; namely, an aroma, combined with
an agreeable bitter taste, and a yellow colour; all of which properties
are, by the consumers and dealers therein, expected to exist in the
article after drying.
The art of drying hops, therefore, has been a subject of speculation for
many years; and although we find the kiln apparatus for preserving them
differ in many places, from the various opinions of the projectors, yet
they are all intended for the same mode of action, i. e. the producing
of a proper degree of heat, which must be regulated according to the
state of the atmosphere at the gathering season, and the consequent
quantity of the watery extract that the hops contain at the time: thus
it is usual to have two kilns of different temperatures at work at the
same time. It should, however, be observed, that the principal art of
drying hops is in doing it as quickly as possible, so as not to injure
them in their colour. As soon as they are dried, it is considered
necessary to put them up into close and thick bags.
It should be observed, that all vegetables contain at every period of
their growth two distinct species of moiture: the one called by
naturalists the common juice, which is the ascending sap, and is replete
with watery particles: the other is termed the proper juice, which
having passed up through the leaves, and being there concocted and
deprived of the watery part, contains the principle on which various
properties and virtues of the plant depend.
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