340 
Fifty Years of Hop Farming. 
at the advantage which a small band of capitalists has over a 
large, disunited body of producers wanting money. The brewers 
have to take the hops at a price which gives a profit to the 
merchants. Sometimes big profits are made, though since 
the importations of hops have been large the merchants have 
not been able to govern values to any great extent. Indeed, in 
one or two years, when the home-crop has been of indifferent 
quality, and the probable importation uncertain, the merchants 
hvae in some instances obtained offers from brewers for hops 
still belonging to planters, whose samples were lent by the 
factors. 
In a season like that of 1889, when a crop of average 
quantity and good quality is grown, the merchants do not 
hesitate to purchase freely, as they know that the brewers will 
have fine English hops in preference to any of foreign origin. 
Unfortunately, in almost all instances farmers are mulcted 
directly and indirectly by the charges and intermediate profits 
of middlemen in the disposal of their produce. Hop-growers 
are worse off than any other producers under the sun in this 
respect. The mode of sale of hops is costly, antiquated, and 
is one of the reasons why hop-growing in England is in a 
depressed condition. 
Informer times there was a large hop-fair held at Weylrill, in 
Hants. Hops from the Hants and Surrey plantations were taken 
and pitched there for sale in whole growths. Some thousands 
of pockets were sent to this fair in good seasons. The hop-fair 
was divided into the ' ; Earnham Row,'* for the hops produced in 
the celebrated Earnham district, and the " Country Row," for 
Hants hops and those grown in other parts of Surrey. More 
recently the planters have sent the ordinary samples of their 
growths, or sample pockets. In 1889 there were only 518 
pockets pitched in the " Earnham Row."' The business done in 
hops at Weyhill Eair is now. comparatively speaking, very small. 
The greater part of the hops, at least from Kent, Sussex, 
Surrey, and Hants, is consigned for sale to the Borough, the 
great hop-emporium of the world. 
There was a hop-fair at Maidstone and other Kentish towns 
where hops were sold by sample ; also at Robertsbridge, in Sussex. 
These now exist only in name. No hops are sold there. 
At "Worcester there is a special building used as a hop- 
market, where the principal part of the. hops is sold and weighed, 
the record of the number of pockets which pass the scales being 
duly reported in the papers.. Some of the hops are brought 
into the market warehouses, and sampled and sold to merchant* 
by the owners. In many cases Worcestershire and Hereford- 
