320 HOPS. 



selling branch of the Neuwied Association's work has been 

 transferred to a private firm. 



It is self-evident that such associations cannot success- 

 fully compete with the capital strength of the middleman,, 

 unless themselves possessed of a large capital ; and where 

 they lack the necessary means the State should intervene ta 

 keep them alive. In this respect the Bavarian Government 

 sets an example worthy of imitation by other States in assist- 

 ing associations of this kind, not only with considerable sub- 

 sidies, but also with loans free of interest. 



According to their means the sale associations in Germany 

 are more or less well provided with appliances for pressing, 

 drying and sulphuring hops ; some even having their owrt 

 warehouses, like the Holledau Association, founded in 1896- 

 by the Abens Loan Society. 



A prominent part is now played by the numerous asso- 

 ciations for securing a proper guarantee of the origin of hop 

 parcels. Certain unscrupulous dealers have made fortunes 

 by falsifications of this nature, viz., buying small quantities- 

 of, say, fine Saaz hops, mixing them with larger amounts of 

 hops from other districts, packing the mixture in good 

 packets, and, after marking and sealing them in imitation 

 of their suppositious origin, selling the whole as Saaz hops. 



This vending inferior goods under a false flag is calculated 

 to greatly injure the reputation of the renowned producing 

 districts ; and in order to put an end to this unfair dealing 

 the growers in various places have combined and established 

 institutions or halls for marking their produce, the first ta 

 take action being the districts of Saaz and Spalt, which 

 suffered most from the state of things alluded to above. 



In 1884 the town of Saaz, in conjunction with 300 hop- 

 growing communities and the Hop Dealers' Association, 

 founded the Saaz Hop-Marking Institute (" Signirhalle ") 

 for attesting the origin of hops grown in the surrounding 



