66 QUALITY AND KEEPING OF HOPS. STATISTICS OF 



being full of flower, bright, and clean, so that a crop of from 

 15 cwt. to 20 cwt. per acre was not an uncommon estimate for 

 the season. Allowing for small, or no crops at all, in certain 

 blighted districts, Messrs. Bakers, White, and Morgan, in 

 their circular, estimated the English growth to be equal to 

 420,0007. old duty, or more than thrice the amount yielded 

 in 1874. 



In order to give the current opinion of other experienced 

 parties, I quote the following different statements. 



Mr. M. Bruce Tate, manager of the Hop Exchange, 

 London, writes : 



" The season commences with relatively high prices, which 

 may be ascribed to the following causes : (1) The absence of 

 good quality, and the reduced stocks generally of old hops ; 

 (2) our new crop being much below an average ; (3) an 

 undoubtedly small crop in Germany, and short crops on the 

 Continent generally. 



" As the result of a careful investigation, I should estimate 

 our home growth to yield some 350,000 to 380,000 cwt., and 

 the continental crop, all through, at about one-third of a full 

 average. America is reported to have equal to about two- 

 thirds of last year's growth, the quality being various, or 

 ' uneven.' 



"It will be a natural deduction from the foregoing that 

 foreign supplies to this country must be unusually small ; in 

 fact, I rather anticipate the probability of hops being exported 

 to the Continent. Under any circumstances, price at this 

 moment is alone a bar to business in German hops on this 

 side. That America and Belgium will have hops enough 



