318 HOPS. 



If, then, the annual consumption (which is continually grow- 

 ing) is to be covered by the production in any one year, an 

 average yield of about 8 cwt. per acre must be obtained. 

 This, however, is one that can only be reckoned upon in a 

 good hop year, i.e., once, or at most twice, in a decade. Of 

 course there are seasons when the crop exceeds the con- 

 sumption ; but, on the one hand, these good years are by 

 no means so frequent as is sometimes averred, and, on the 

 other, the surplus consists mainly of inferior sorts, although 

 the better kinds are affected in price by the glut. At any rate 

 the bogie of over-production is not so very dreadful after all ; 

 then, either all published data on acreage, production and con- 

 sumption are false, or else " over-production " is a mere fable. 



On the grower's side, the predominant position of the 

 middleman and the insufficient guarantee for the reality of 

 the alleged origin of hop parcels are looked upon as the 

 cause of the depression under which the industry is suffer- 

 ing. Now, in himself the middleman is far from being 

 as dangerous as the aforesaid condition of dependence 

 frequently existing between him and the producer and 

 consumer. It would be wrong to abolish the respectable 

 middleman, since he is really necessary, especially in districts 

 remote from market centres. The grower has neither time 

 nor opportunity for studying the conditions of the world's 

 market ; besides, he often lacks the necessary knowledge, 

 and is too poor a salesman. Frequently, too, the grower 

 has not the appliances for treating the hops like the mer- 

 chant with his properly installed plant and his accurate 

 knowledge of how to supply the consumer's needs. In this 

 respect the only remedy is by association. 



As a result of the complaints made by growers against 

 middlemen, associations for the sale of hops have been 

 instituted in Bavaria. Struwe^ reports that the first of 



1 E. Struwe, Der Hopfenhandel, Berlin, ISQl.J 



