338 



Hop Supply of United Kingdom. 



country contributes any material quantity of hops to our 

 supply, but mention maybe made of 3,000 cwts. received from 

 Russia in 1898. Among our colonies, Canada regularly sends 

 a few hundred cwts., and Australasia usually sends still smaller 

 consignments, although the quota from that division of the- 

 world reached 2,000 cwts. in 1891. 



The hop requirements of the world are supplied mainly by 

 three countries — England, Germany, and the United States - r 

 and each of these would appear to produce between 400,000/ 

 and 500,000 cwts. annually, the out-turn of the United States 

 being the smallest of the three. 



The area under hops in Germany amounts to as nearly as 

 possible 100,000 acres, and it is noteworthy that this has 

 exhibited a very steady, although slow, decline during the 

 last ten years, the area in 1888 having been 114,700 acres,, 

 and 97,600 acres in 1897. The production per acre is very 

 much below the English, averaging only 4*67 cwts., as com- 

 pared with the British 777 cwts. in the same period. In spite,, 

 therefore, of an acreage not very far from double the British,, 

 the total production in Germany is only approximately the 

 same, or a very little more than our own, amounting to- 

 497,000 cwts. annually on the ten years average. This com- 

 pares with 438,000 cwts. in England ; but a comparison of the 

 last five years of the decade shows the English production to 

 have averaged 494,000 cwts., and the German 485,000 cwts. 

 This change would appear to be mainly attributable to the 

 seasons, a very poor yield having been experienced in 

 England in 1888 and 1890, and in Germany in 1893. 



Fully half the acreage devoted to hops in Germany is in 

 Bavaria, the most important district being Middle Franconia, 

 which grows about a quarter of all the hops produced in the 

 Empire. Wiirtemberg, Baden, and Alsace have also con- 

 siderable areas under hops, while in Prussia the chief district 

 is Posen, towards the east. 



Although Germany thus produces about the same quantitv 

 of hops as the United Kingdom, and in spite of its producing 

 a slightly larger quantity of beer than this country *, it is 



* The average annual production of beer in the United Kingdom during the five 

 years 1893-97 was 1,200,688,000 gallons, and in Germany 1,267,587,000 gallons \Retilrn 

 of Alcoholic Beverages, H. C. 72, 1899]. 



