OBSERVATIONS ON BLIGHT. 221 



Worcester crop, should that fail. The hop aifords scope for the 

 speculator in two ways : first, the hop itself; and, secondly, the 

 hop-duty; the last is the subject of betting to a very large 

 amount annually. The old duty on hops is 10s. 8(L per cwt. ; 

 the new duty, imposed in 1802, is 125. 7d. ; making, with the 

 fractions, 23*. id.; in 1805, 4*. 8d. per cwt. was reduced; so 

 that the actual duty paid is 18*. 8^. per cwt. In betting on 

 the duty, the old duty is always understood ; and so generally 

 adopted is this plan of expressing the probability of a crop 

 by the betted duty, that the common question is, " What is 

 the duty laid at ?" and as the duty falls, the price of hops, 

 of course, rises ; and vice versa. This duty is however too 

 much guided by a few men in the Borough, who frequently 

 rise and fall it to answer their own purposes ; yet, as the day 

 of picking approaches, the near correspondence of the betted 

 duty and the old duty actually paid, is truly surprising. In 

 the year 1802, on the 14th of May, the old duty was laid at 

 100,000/.; the fly, however, appearing pretty plentifully 

 towards the end of the month, it sunk to 80,000/. ; the fly 

 increased; and, by the end of June, the duty had gone down 

 to G0,000/. ; by the end of July, to 30,000/. ; by the end of 

 August, to 22,000/. ; and by the end of December to 14,000/. ; 

 the duty actually paid this year was 15,463/. 10*. 5d. In 

 1825, the duty commenced at 130,000/., but, owing to the 

 excessive increase of the fly, had in July fallen to 16,000/. ; at 

 the beginning of September it rose to 29,000/., but towards the 

 end fell again to 22,000/. ; the amount paid was 24,317/. Os. lid. 

 In the following year, the summer was remarkably dry and 

 hot ; we could hardly sleep of nights with the sheets on ; the 

 thermometer for several nights continued above 70" all the 

 night through : the crop of hops was immense, scarcely a fly 

 was to be found, and the betted duty, which began in May at 

 120,000/., rose to 265,000/. ; the old duty actually paid was 

 269,331/. Os. 9d.; the gross duty, 468,401/. 16*. Id., being 

 the largest amount ever known. From this it will appear 

 that, in duty alone, a little insignificant looking fly has a con- 

 trol over 450,000/. annual income to the British Treasury ; 

 and supposing the hop-grounds of England capable of paying 

 this duty annually, which they certainly are, it is very manifest, 

 that in 1825, these creatures were the means of robbing the 

 Treasury of 426,000/. This seems a large sum, but it is not 



