ORIGIN AND SPREAD. 6 



much over one or two acres in extent. The picking is 

 done bv the family; in bad weather, the vines are cut 

 and taken in(k)urs to be picked. The .t^^rowers do n«U 

 have curing houses, but sell the sun-dried hops to the 

 dealer, who attends to the proper curing and sulphur- 

 ing. The bulk of Germany's crop is produced in iJa- 

 varia, which furnishes one-half or more of the empire's 

 product. 1 hen follow in order of importance — Wur- 

 temberg. Baden, Posen, Altmark and scattering dis- 

 tricts. Nuremberg in Bavaria is the controlling mar- 

 ket for (jerman hops, although hops are bought by 

 dealers direct from growers at many other points. 



The French district is largely confined to Alsace 

 and Lorraine, now German provinces, but hops are 

 grown to a considerable extent in Burgundy and 

 Northern France. The industry is decreasing in this 

 section. 



In Austria-Hungary, attention to hop culture is in- 

 creasing slightly. Special grades of hops, with pecul- 

 iar characteristics that give them a fancy value, are 

 grown in upper Austria, including Galicia, Styria, 

 Silesia and Moravia, also further south in Hungary. 

 But the center of the Austro-Hungarian industry is in 

 Bohemia, where between 25,000 and 30,000 acres are 

 usually devoted to hops. One-half of the acreage is 

 located in the Saatz district, the hops from which com- 

 mand the highest prices in the world's market — tw'O 

 and three times as much as American or English hops. 

 The quality of Bohemian hops is carefully safeguarded 

 by government, which has established technical shools 

 in hop culture at Rakonitz and Laun. Besides hop 

 gardens and laboratories for scientific work, these 

 schools are provided with an elaborate course of in- 

 struction and experimentation. So interesting and use- 

 ful is the study that students go to these schools from 

 other countries. Every bale of hops produced in Bo- 

 hemia must be officially sealed by a government in- 



