1908.] 



Report on the Hop Industry. 



363 



The possibility of additional employment as a result of im- 

 proved education ought not to be overlooked. Additional 

 employment would enable a larger population to find a living 

 upon the land. This consideration is of high moment to the 

 maintenance of the physical standard of the race, for the rural 

 population has not only to replenish its own numbers, but, as 

 a town-bred population rapidly deteriorates, to supply the 

 ever-increasing demands of our great cities for healthy men and 

 women workers. 



In view of the heavy rates necessary in respect of rural 

 elementary education, the incidence of which falls mainly on 

 the agricultural population, it is only fair that every possible 

 facility should, in return, be afforded for technical agricultural 

 instruction. Nothing in our system of education should hinder 

 any lad from seeking his life's work upon the land. On the 

 contrary, all that is possible should be done to show him how, 

 by the application of skilled knowledge, agriculture holds out 

 the prospect of not only an interesting but a profitable career. 

 A complete system of technical agricultural education is, 

 therefore, the natural corollary to the vast sums spent on ele- 

 mentary education in the rural parts of the country. 



The Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed 

 to inquire into the past and present condition of the hop 



industry have issued their report (H. C. 

 Report of Committee 213, price 5|^.), together with an appen- 

 on the Hop Industry, dix containing the minutes of evidence 



and numerous tables. The report also 

 contains the draft reports proposed by Mr. Courthope and 

 Mr. Gretton. The statistics laid before the Committee showed 

 that there had been no material falling-off in the home pro- 

 duction of hops in the period since 1885, when figures as 

 regards production were first collected. On the other hand, 

 there had been a very considerable decline in the area under 

 cultivation, and the acreage during the past twenty years has 

 been reduced by one-third. The explanation of this apparently 

 paradoxical result is to be found in the increased yield per 

 acre, which has especially characterized the last fifteen years. 

 The Committee review the position of the industry in the 



