WORK DONE OR PROJECTED 205 



already had to depend on the obtaining of advances on his 

 growing crop. 



In no other branch of farming does the practice of 

 advances, both on the growing crop and on the crop itself 

 after it has been harvested, prevail to the same extent as is 

 the case in the hop industry. A grower may get as many 

 as three separate advances before he finally sells his crop 

 (i) in June or July, when he wants money to meet the cost 

 of washing the plants ; (2) at picking time, to pay the 

 pickers (whose wages are one of the heaviest items in the 

 cost of hop growing) ; and (3) when the produce has been 

 lodged in the factor's warehouse. The seeking of these 

 advances has become a regular practice in the hop industry. 

 They are obtained from the factor, who, incidentally, 

 strengthens his hold over the grower thereby, and, in these 

 circumstances, controls the situation. He does so, too, the 

 more completely because in accordance with his business 

 policy he rarely allows the grower to know the name of the 

 merchant to whom he passes on the hops he handles. 



It is, again, an established practice for hop growers not to 

 pay until the end of the year for their manures and other 

 necessaries, and, in the circumstances, it may be assumed 

 that they pay much higher prices than would be the case if 

 they were to purchase through an agricultural co-operative 

 trading society. 



As the final outcome of these various conditions the hop 

 growers do not get as much as they ought, and the brewers 

 pay more than they should, while the industry itself is 

 described by a leading authority as " always in a thoroughly 

 demoralised state from top to bottom." 



The problem that arises resolves itself into the question as 

 to the possibility or otherwise of the growers adopting some 

 method of co-operation by means of which they would be 

 brought into closer touch with the brewers, the intermediate 

 profits thus being saved, or reduced, to the advantage of 

 both. This consideration should appeal to the brewers 

 no less than to the growers, considering that the financial 

 position of the former has been so greatly affected by recent 



