HOP-BLIGHT 321 



kinds. But a formidable source of trouble exists (and, 

 it appears, must always exist) in the enormous changes 

 and expansion of the brewing industry in all parts of the 

 globe. It is actually the case that there has been a 

 greatly increased and unforeseen demand for hops of less 

 highly developed aroma, for the purpose of brewing light 

 ales with little of the perfume given by the finest and 

 hitherto most highly priced hops. So that, having ex- 

 pended skill and money to produce the finest hops, and 

 having been favoured by the weather, a grower may find 

 that his pains have been thrown away, and that there is a 

 sudden falling-off in the demand for the beautiful high- 

 priced crop which he has gathered in. There is no remedy 

 for these world- wide fluctuations in the market, and the 

 only way in which the grower can protect himself is by 

 combining with others to procure information from every 

 part of the world as to the probable production and the 

 probable demand of the various qualities of hops a year 

 or more in advance of his planting. More has been done 

 in America and in Germany in this way than in England, 

 and it is probable that the future success or failure of 

 hop-growing in this country depends more on the possi- 

 bility of obtaining correct information in regard to the 

 tendencies of production in all hop-growing countries, and 

 in regard to the demand in all the brewing industries of 

 the world, than on anything else. 



This brief sketch of the hop-growing industry is 

 sufficient to show what a very difficult problem is before 

 those who desire to take legislative measures for the pre- 

 servation of the old industry of the hop-garden in this 

 country. But it must not be at once assumed, because 

 the case is a difficult and complicated one, that nothing 

 can be done, and that the beautiful hop-vines and the 

 finest hops are necessarily to be banished from the 

 English soil. 



