340 



Hop Supply of United Kingdom. 



For Belgium, statistics of area and production only appear 

 at somewhat rare intervals. The Agricultural Census of 

 1895 shows the area in that year to have been 9,150 acres, 

 and the production nearly 96,000 cwts., i.e. y \o\ cwts. per acre. 

 In 1880, when the previous agricultural inquiry was made, 

 the area covered 10,337 acres. The imports amount to 

 about 41,000 cwts., and the exports to 28,000, on the average, 

 leaving a net importation of about 13,000 cwts. 



Statistics of the hop production in the United States are 

 meagre, and only the recent official information on the sub- 

 ject has been published in this Journal.* It appears that 

 the area under hops was, at the time of the last census, about 

 50,000 acres, there having been 50,212 acres in 1889, and 

 48,962 in 1890. Definite particulars for later years are not 

 available ; but according to commercial estimates, which 

 the United States Agricultural Department appears to con- 

 sider reliable, there has been a rapid extension in the three 



Western States of California, Washington, and Oregon, and 

 * 



the area there in 1895 was estimated roughly at 30,700 acres, 

 as against 12,200 acres in 1889. 



The figures of production are equally uncertain, except for 

 the census years of 1889 and 1890, when the totals were 

 349,743 and 329,220 cwts. respectively. Commercial esti- 

 mates would appear to indicate that the production, on the 

 average of 1893-97, did not exceed 420,000 cwts. 



The United States produce more hops than they can 

 utilise, and their trade returns show a net exportation, which 

 has been fairly constant, of 121,800 cwts. during the five 

 years ending June, 1898. This amount, subtracted from the 

 estimated production of 1893-97, would leave not more than 

 300,000 cwts., in round numbers, available for consumption 

 But, as in the case of Belgium, the data for such an estimate 

 are scanty, and the probable error must be much larger than 

 in the case of those European countries which have definite 

 statistics extending over a series of years. 



* Vol. IV., March, 1898, p. 495 ; and Vol. VI., September, 1899, p. 234. 



