644 TJie Report of the Select Committee on the Hop Industry. 
Several witnesses who were called before the Committee expresse* 
a strong opinion that all foreign hops imported should be requirec 
to be marked with the name of the grower, and the parish, or district 
in which they were grown. This would principally be useful t< 
brewers and would protect them from the risk of buying inferioi 
brands for those of better quality, as Baden hops for best Bavarians, 
for example. But this would hardly benefit the English grower, 
except that if marking foreign hops were insisted upon it might 
reduce the amount of hops imported from Germany, where, in many 
cases, hops are not packed by the grower, but by merchants, who 
buy them half dried, and complete the process of desiccation and 
pack them for sale. As to this, the Committee " are unable to see 
that the interest of English hop-growers can be promoted by re- 
quiring any certificate of origin of such foreign hops, and thus giving 
greater security to purchasers of them." 
The general conclusion of the Committee is that " the evidence 
has been to the effect that, while for several past years the price of 
Imps has been unprofitably low, especially in the case of inferior 
qualities, yet the year 1889 has been an exception, and that the 
growers in many districts have done fairly well. As the crop in 
that year was somewhat above the average, there is reason to hope 
that, with a reduced acreage under cultivation and an increased 
consumption of malt, the balance between supply and demand is 
being redressed to the advantage of the producer, and that more 
prosperous times may be at hand." 
This is true in the main, but the statement that the growers in 
many districts did fairly well in 1889 must be modified. If the 
growers had been able to supply the market gradually they would 
have done well, but many of them sold their growths in September 
and October, according to the pernicious custom of the hop trade, at 
the current rates, kept low by the large temporary supply, which 
were from 40 to 60 per cent, less than those holding after the Christ- 
mas holidays. This custom of selling the whole of the year's growth 
of hops in a few weeks to middlemen — merchants — was not pro- 
minently brought under the notice of the Committee, nor is it ad- 
verted to in their report, though it tends in an important degree to 
decrease the price of hops to the growers. 
The more "prosperous times " prophesied have already arrived 
for some enterprising growers who have produced hops this year in 
spite of blight and mould. Those whose hops have been blighted or 
mildewed, on the other hand, will lose much money. Prices for 
hops will be high, as the crop throughout the world will be much 
under the average, and the prospects for the next year or two are 
bright in consequence of diminished supply, and larger consumption 
caused by the improvement of trade generally. But after this the 
deluge, if one may judge from the experiences of former times. 
Planting in unsuitable places will follow after the high prices. 
Growers will plant beyond their capital. Inferior and heavy crop- 
ping sorts will be selected for cultivation, and a Select Committee 
will again be invoked. Chaules Whitehead. 
