300 
Farm  Prize  Competition,  1909. 
having  come  for  twenty  or  thirty  years.  Bed  clothing  is  given 
out  on  arrival  and  booked  to  each  picker,  and  the  same  must 
be  handed  back  at  the  close  of  the  picking  before  a settlement 
is  made.  The  cost  of  picking,  curing,  and  putting  on  the 
market  varies  with  each  season,  but  21s.  to  30s.  per  cwt. 
will  cover  the  usual  variations. 
From  these  figured  it  will  be  seen  how  extremely  variable 
is  the  cost  per  cwt.  of  production.  A full  crop  of  15  cwt.  per 
acre  grown  in  a suitable  season  without  blight  may  not  cost 
more  than  211.  per  acre,  or  28s.  per  cwt.,  to  grow  ; add  to  this 
22s.  per  cwt.  for  picking  and  curing  and  6s.  %d.  for  super- 
intendence and  you  arrive  at  a total  of  21.  16s.  %d.  per  cwt. 
Whereas  in  a year  of  blight,  a crop  of  6 cwt.  per  acre  may  have 
cost  211.  per  acre,  or  90s.  per  cwt.,  to  grow,  picking  and  curing 
28s.,  superintendence  16s.  8rf.,  or  6Z.  14s.  %d.  per  cwt.,  and  as 
in  many  cases  smaller  crops  are  grown,  the  difference  becomes 
still  greater.  A crop  of  5 cwt.  per  acre  may  cost  108s.  per  cwt. 
to  grow,  30s.  for  picking,  curing,  &c.,  17s.  6rf.  for  super- 
intendence, or  11.  15s.  6rf.  per  cwt. 
It  may  be  of  interest  to  note  that  out  of  the  amount  of  22s. 
to  30s.  per  cwt.  calculated  as  the  cost  of  picking  and  curing 
the  hops,  no  less  a portion  than  from  17s.  to  23s.  per  cwt.  is 
expended  in  wages,  so  that  taking  a crop  of  10  cwt.  per  acre, 
the  wages  paid  for  harvesting  the  crop  would  amount  to  at  least 
9Z.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  manual  labour  involved  in  the 
cultivation  amounts  to  about  bl.  per  acre,  thus  giving  a total  of 
14/.  per  acre  in  wages.  It  would  probably  be  within  the  mark 
to  say  that  the  average  annual  expenditure  in  wages  on  “mixed” 
farms  in  the  Midlands  does  not  exceed  30s.  per  acre. 
Here  we  have  a direct  loss  of  12/.  10s.  per  acre  in  wages 
when  hop  yards  are  converted  into  ordinary  mixed  grass  and 
corn  farms,  as  has  been  the  case  with  several  thousand  acres 
during  recent  years.  In  Kent  the  loss  is  greater  owing  to  the 
greater  amount  of  manual  labour  per  acre  employed.  This  loss 
per  acre  over  a large  area,  which  is  unfortunately  increasing 
every  year,  is  one  which  must  appeal  strongly  to  those  interested 
either  in  the  question  of  rural  depopulation  or  in  the  health  of 
the  “ submerged  tenth  ” of  the  large  towns  near  to  the  hop 
districts  whence  the  ranks  of  the  hop  pickers  are  drawn.  It 
affects  both  classes  directly.  To  the  rural  labourer  it  means  the 
loss  of  a job,  and  he  migrates  to  the  town  for  whatever  he  may 
find.  To  a great  number  of  the  poor  of  the  urban  population 
it  entails  the  loss  of  a temporary  sojourn  in  the  health-giving 
atmosphere  of  the  hop  picking  season  and  of  the  money  with 
which  to  commence  the  dread  task  of  facing  the  winter. 
One  appreciates  the  fact  that  competition  is  to  a great  extent 
the  undoing  of  the  English  hop  industry,  and  is  constrained 
