Fifty Years of Hop Fa/rming. 
339 
regularly and closely. Much saving of time and labour has 
been effected by these machines, an illustration of one of the 
most modern of which is given above. 
Storing. 
It has been found out by bitter experience that hops cannot 
be kept long in the store-rooms and other buildings upon farms. 
A damp atmosphere and variations of temperature cause the 
formation of a " crust " of mouldy and decaying particles under 
the " pocketing," which gradually extends deep into the contents 
of the pocket. When the hops are sold, and examined for 
•n eighing, all this " crust " is cut away and rejected by the 
purchaser. Planters, therefore, in these days very rarely keep 
hops at home, unless they have exceptional accommodation. 
They send them directly they are picked to the warehouses of 
the hop-factors in London, where they can be well kept, even 
for years. 
Methods of Selling Hops. 
Not very much alteration has taken place with regard to 
the methods of selling hops in the last fifty years. It is the 
custom now, as formerly, to sell whole growths in one transaction, 
and, as a rule, through an intermediary agent, or factor, who 
sells the hops, not to the brewer — the consumer — direct, but to 
a merchant, who supplies the brewer as he requires them. It is 
exceptional for a brewer to purchase hops of the producer or 
the factor. Merchants buy of the producers occasionally, and 
this practice has been somewhat extended lately ; but the great 
bulk of the hop-crop passes through the hands of factors and 
merchants. Attempts have been made to bring the producers 
and consumers together. The formation of companies has been 
attempted, to take the place of factors, and to make advances 
to the planters as they do ; also to take the place of merchants, 
and hold the hops for the brewers, and give them time for 
payment as the merchants now arrange. 
It will be easily understood that the present system is 
essentially wrong, as the greater part of the year's crop is put 
upon the market at once directly after it has been picked, and 
often before the consumers ave in the market. There is no 
absolute value determined at this time, at least not that fixed 
by actual supply and demand. The planters press to sell. The 
factors wish to sell to cover advances. The merchants buy, it 
is true, to some extent upon speculation, but for the most part 
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