206 AGRICULTURAL ORGANISATION 



increases in taxation and licence duties. In the 1911 season 

 a leading brewery company did buy direct from the growers. 

 Could this procedure be expanded by organisation into a 

 recognised system ? 



It has been suggested that the growers should form 

 societies which would set up co-operative hop exchanges where 

 the hops would be stored until they could be disposed of at 

 satisfactory prices. By means of such combination, also, it 

 is thought the growers would be able to transact business on 

 a sufficiently large scale to attract the ultimate buyer 

 without the intervention of middlemen. 



The provision of these exchanges, with the requisite cold 

 storage in order to keep the hops in good condition, would, 

 however, be a costly undertaking, and probably beyond the 

 means of growers who already depend on advances to pay 

 the cost even of raising their crops, though expenditure on 

 this account might be avoided to a certain extent by making 

 use of existing hop warehouses. 



Assuming that the society could overcome the difficulty 

 in regard to the stores, there would still be left the further 

 serious question in regard to credit. 



With combination and, also, with direct dealings between 

 the growers and the brewers, there should be a greater possi- 

 bility of disposing of the crop in good time, and in this case 

 the need for credit would be lessened ; but the view is enter- 

 tained that credit could not be dispensed with altogether. 

 There would still be growers of various types who could not 

 do without advances. 



Would a co-operative society be able to control the large 

 amount of capital, and, also, secure the extremely able and 

 careful management, needed to enable it to face the risk of 

 advances on growing crops in so notoriously hazardous a 

 business as hop production ? True it is that the factors are 

 prepared to face the risk, and if they do there may seem to 

 be no reason why a co-operative society should not ; yet 

 though, in a general way, the risk may be small, there is 

 always the possibility of heavy losses, as, for instance, from 

 the appearance in the hop plants, at the last moment, of 



