PESTS OF THE HOP CHOP. 115 



In this country there is no such thing as an annual 

 drain upon the crop through the work of insects, al- 

 though in an occasional season, as has just been hinted, 

 the damage may be very great through the abundance 

 of the lice. Such a season was that of 1886 throughout 

 the hop belt of New York state. Some yards were 

 completely ruined, while others lost from one-half to 

 three-quarters of the crop. In Oregon and Washing- 

 ton, after the bad hop louse year of 1890, Professor 

 Washburn estimated that one-twelfth of the crop of 

 the states was ruined by lice and gave it a cash value 

 of $365,000. 



THE HOP PLANT LOUSE (PJiordon kumuli, Schrank) 



In England, this insect has been a serious enemy 

 of the hop crop for at least 200 years. The species is 

 probably indigenous to that country, and has frequent- 

 ly been the cause of the trouble known to hop grow- 

 ers there as "black blight," the occurrence of which 

 has increased apparently during the last 50 years. The 

 crop in 1882, for example, was reduced from 459,333 

 cwts., to 114,832 cwts. The cost of picking the crop 

 was reduced from 350,000 to about 150,000, so that 

 not only did the owners of the plantations suffer, but 

 the laborers who depended upon the hop picking were 

 very considerable losers. The insect was probably in- 

 troduced into the United. States in the early part of the 

 present century, and it is safe to say that it is one of 

 the many species which have been brought to us upon 

 nursery stock, since, as will be shown later, the insect 

 hibernates in the egg state upon plum trees and is thus 

 readily carried from one country to another, or from 

 one part of the same country to another. It was not 

 only brought to America from England in this way, 

 but within recent years was carried from the east to 

 the far west. As late as 1888 it was the boast of the 

 hop growers of Washington and Oregon that they did 



