CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PLANT. 35 



expert dealers and growers, whose views have been 

 carefully collaborated by the author, agrees that im- 

 perfect fecundation is a frequent cause of light weight 

 hops of inferior quality. Especially important testi- 

 mony on this point comes from A. J. Wolcott, an ex- 

 perienced grower in Polk county, Oregon: 



"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 color 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 my- 

 self 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 growing vigorously, when my hops became 

 of good color 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, re- 

 quire fertilizing from the bloom, and as none but the male 

 hops bears any pollen, it is necessary to have a sufficient 

 number of these in a hop yard so that the female flowers of 

 each vine may be fertilized. And brewers, if they expect a 

 good, solid, bright-colored, 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 can- 

 not expect lupulin. Germany may produce good hops with- 

 out 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." 



VARIETIES OF HOPS 



Here there is "confusion worse confounded." 

 Plants raised from seed are new varieties; only root 

 cuttings propagate the same varieties. Many varieties 

 have been produced and as it is difficult to distinguish 

 between their roots, the "sets" have been more or less 

 mixed. There has been an astonishing lack of care to 

 preserve the purity of the best varieties, and as the 

 same common name is sometimes applied to roots of 

 different varieties when grown in other sections, there 



