Today hop growing remains a viable commercial enterprise only in
parts of the far western United States--notably in Washington. But,
as James Fenimore Cooper remembered, the mid-nineteenth century in
Cooperstown, New York, was a time when "the 'hop was king, ' and
the whole countryside was one great hop yard, and beautiful."
In "Tinged with Gold," Michael A. TomIan explores all aspects of
hop culture in the United States and provides a background for
understanding the buildings devoted to drying, baling, and storing
hops. The work considers the history of these structures as it
illustrates their development over almost two centuries, the result
of agrarian commercialism and nearly continuous technological
improvement. In examining the context in which the buildings were
constructed, Tomlan considers the growth, cultivation, and
harvesting of the plant; the economic, social, and recreational
activities of the people involved in hop culture; and the record of
mechanical inventions and technical developments that shaped hop
kilns, hop houses, and hop driers and coolers in the various areas
where the crop flourished. The work challenges assumptions about
the noncommercial nature of American agriculture in the eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries and raises important questions about
the "folk" tradition of hop houses, arguing that the designs of
these buildings were rational responses to commercial imperatives
rather than the continuance of arcane English or European
customs.
"Tinged with Gold" brings hop culture to life as it explores the
history of this neglected aspect of rural agriculture. Because the
work demonstrates that the significance of a relatively obscure
building type can be fully appreciated if placed in its historical
context, it provides a model for studying other rural structures.
Drawing upon an impressive array of primary and secondary sources,
this work is a definitive history of hop culture in the United
States.
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