38 Agricultural Jourual of Victoria. 



sulpliurous acid gas can be injected under pi'essure after the lid is 

 closed. The hops are all hand-pressed, and not with hydraulic 

 pressure, since the latter process crushes the lupulin cells and 

 ultimately induces fermentation. 



These cylinders will last for several seasons, and since the initial 

 cost in Melbourne is only 12s. 6d., and they can be returned as empties 

 by the brewers, a trial should certainly be given to this simple method 

 of packing. 



The Red Spider or Mite. 



This minute pest seems to be the most troublesome with which the 

 Victorian hop-grower has to contend, and in few cases is it absent 

 fi'om the hop plantation. From Timboon, where some of the finest 

 hops are grown, one writes that the spider does not trouble him, but 

 this is exceptional. In fact, many regard it as the greatest hindrance 

 to the success of the industry. Mr. Donald Gow, of Harrietville, who 

 started hop-growing a quarter of a century ago, considei s that the loss 

 of quality in the Victorian hop is due to this pest. He says that it 

 makes its appearance on the lower leaves about the time the hop 

 reaches the top of the pole, and increases in numbers, attacking leaf 

 after leaf in ascending order. By the time the strobile is formed, the 

 spider has taken all the substance out of the leaves, and then they 

 start on it, extracting the lupulin which is the essence of hop. 



The hop-grower, from past experience, seeing the spider start on 

 the strobile begins picking, before it is anything like ripe, to save his 

 crop from total destruction. It is almost useless to gather the crop, 

 because it is unsaleable or nearly so. If we could get rid of this pest, 

 perhaps our hops would improve in quality. 



Another grower writes to ask if there is any remedy to cope with 

 the red spider besides spraying ' the vines, which, with a low price, 

 would not pay to do. 



The subject of insect and kindred pests is ably dealt jjwith by my 

 colleague, Mr. French, who has described and figured the red spider 

 in his Handbook of the Destructive Insects of Victoria, Part I. He 

 informs me that either spimo or kerosene emulsion will kill all the 

 red spider necessary, but if the old poles, plants, &c., are allowed to 

 remain near to where the new sets are planted, the latter are certain to 

 take it. 



Statistics. 



There has been a gradual decline in the area under crop and the 

 number of persons engaged in the industry. For the year ended 

 1st. March 1902, there were only QQ hop-growers in Victoria, and the 

 area is returned as 307 acres. It will be seen from the accompanying 

 return that the quantity of hops locally grown in the 1901 season was 

 the smallest during a period extending over seventeen years. 



