'316 HOPS. 



Therefore any falsification in this respect not only deceives 

 the consumer, but is also injurious to the reputation of the 

 good districts put forward as the sources of inferior samples. 

 An equally reprehensible practice is that of mixing old and 

 new hops, even if both are really from the same district ; 

 and it also frequently happens that good hops are mixed 

 with poorer kinds, and the whole sold under the name of 

 the finer variety. 



The only way open to the brewer to avoid such trickery 

 is either to buy direct from the growers or to deal solely 

 with reliable wholesale merchants who are above such prac- 

 tices. Provided the brewer does not require impossibilities, 

 the merchants will know how to appreciate his custom, and 

 will not fail to treat him fairly. 



Brewers should make it an invariable rule to buy ex- 

 clusively on samples, to look closely after the goods at the 

 time of delivery and insist on their being up to sample. 



At the present time the hop-growing industry is un- 

 doubtedly in a state of depression, and growers are passing 

 through a hard time ; a condition attributed to over-produc- 

 tion, the predominant position of the middleman, and in-- 

 sufficient guarantee of reliability of origin. 



So far as over-production — that powerful lever in the 

 hands of the buying agent — is concerned, the assertion is 

 hardly correct under existing conditions. 



In the first place, the area under hops in England has 

 been considerably reduced in the course of the last decade, 

 having fallen from 71,327 to 50,863 acres from 1885 to 1897. 

 In Germany also the acreage has been diminished by about 

 11,500 acres within the last ten years, and the American 

 hop-growing industry has considerabty declined of late. 



Although, on the other hand, about 7,500 acres more 

 land are now under hops in Austria than in 1885, and an 

 increase of about 5,000 acres is recorded in Eussia, the result- 



