204 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



G. ORGANISATION OF THE HOP INDUSTRY. 



The hop industry is one that offers considerable scope for 

 co-operative effort, though the general position is one of 

 great complexity, and any efforts that are made to deal with 

 it on lines that would be really effective must needs be 

 attended by considerable difficulty. 



Under existing conditions hops are, as a rule, handled by 

 four groups of persons in their passing from the hop fields 

 to the brewer's tun (i) the actual grower ; (2) the factor, 

 otherwise the grower's agent ; (3) the hop merchant who 

 buys from the factor, and (4) the brewer who buys from the 

 hop merchant. There are thus at least two intermediate 

 profits made by traders whose main purpose, it would seem, 

 is to act as middlemen in passing the hops on to the brewer. 

 The rates of commission charged are various, but they are 

 regarded by the growers as unduly high for the services 

 rendered. In Herefordshire the difference between what the 

 grower receives and what the brewer pays is said to be 

 generally about 15 per cent. 



Years ago the hop merchants bought up practically the 

 whole crop by the end of the year, if not by the end of 

 November, only determined holders keeping their production 

 on hand after that period. In this way the merchant served 

 a really useful purpose towards the grower, who received the 

 money for one crop before he required to start on the raising 

 of another. 



More recently the merchants have adopted the practice of 

 making smaller purchases at intervals all the year round, on 

 a " hand-to-mouth " principle. It is even alleged that some 

 of them do not really deal in hops, but merely buy, on com- 

 mission, such supplies as may be asked for from them by the 

 brewers to meet immediate requirements. 



As the result of this change of practice on the part of the 

 merchants, the grower's capital is locked up, and he may find 

 it necessary to make constant efforts to sell in the autumn 

 thus helping to bring about a fall in prices after he has 



