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Turning now to the literature of the subject the greatest 

 diversity of opinion is found. The German investigators seem to 

 agree on this question, and regard male hops as useless or even 

 harmful. It is said that male plants are not allowed in Spalt under 

 a heavy penalty. The hops from this district, however, are not 

 seedless, so that the efforts made in striving after a seedless hop are 

 not altogether successful. 



The American growers, on the contrary, think that imperfect 

 fertilisation is a frequent cause of light weight hops of inferior 

 quality. A leading Oregon grower relates his experience as 

 follows : 



" This complaint of the Germans of seeds in American hops was 

 first heard in 1882, when hops were so high, and caused some 

 growers on this coast to grub out and destroy all their male vines. 

 The result was that their hops did not mature well. They were 

 large, green, light, feathery things, with neither colour nor strength, 

 and dealers would not handle them. I have seen this experiment 

 tried in Southern Oregon with the same result. I planted a yard 

 myself once without being able to get male roots, and my hops 

 were poor, lean things, until I obtained the male plants and got 

 them to grow vigorously, when my hops became of good colour 

 when ripe, with plenty of strength, and I heard no more complaints 

 of poorly matured or lean hops. I am now fully convinced that 

 hops, like many other plants, require fertilising from the bloom, 

 and, as none but the male hop bear any pollen, it is necessary to 

 have a sufficient number of these in a hop yard, so that the flowers 

 of each vine may be fertilised. And brewers, if they expect a good, 

 solid, bright-coloured, well-matured hop, well filled with lupulin, 

 must expect also to see the hop well filled with good, large, purple 

 seed. If they do not wish seed they cannot expect lupulin. 

 Germany may produce good hops without seed, but it cannot be 

 done here, at least such has been my observation and experience. 

 Therefore my advice is to let the male hop alone, and if in a season 

 of high prices a few brewers complain of extra weight in the seed, 

 pay no attention, but go ahead." (From The Hop : Its Culture and 

 Cure, by H. MYRICK.) 



