QUANTITY OF HOPS CHARGED AND AMOUNT OF DUTY PAID, &c.—continued.

The rate of duty from 1711 to 1777 was 1d. per lb.

1778 1779

1d.

1d.

1783 1785

1786 1801 1d. 1 of a farthing per lb.

1802 1804 24d. per lb.

No duty was charged on hops in Scotland, and the duty did not extend to Ireland.

By a calculation, made from reliable sources, of the outlay paid for labour in picking, drying, and preparing the hops for market, it will be seen how large a sum of money is put into circulation for labour, &c., in the process of hop gathering. Assuming the number of pockets grown at 530,000, there wonld be paid in round figures—

Picking (105 bushels to each pocket), at

Hop Pickers.-To give some idea of the number of people employed in picking hops, the following is an official return, kindly furnished me by the Secretary of the South-Eastern Railway, for the last twelve years, of the number of hop pickers conveyed both up and down by special trains from and to London; no account being taken of those who travelled by ordinary trains :

A writer in Land and Water' thus speaks of hop picking:

"There is something wonderfully soothing in the aroma of the hop. The pickers sleep well in the little huts or tents they have run up; and the babies we have seen swinging in their hammocks between the tall bines under an open network of strobiles are invariably in the arms of Morpheus. The hop is classed as a narcotic, and there are many kinds grown-the 'red bine,' 'green bine,' and 'white bine.' The first produces small cones, but is said to resist the attack of insects best of any; the green bine will stand poor ground, and the white bine is the most difficult to grow. It is also the one that realizes the

highest market price. The hops emit a very powerful scent when ripe for picking, and all good experienced growers watch for this peculiar odour, and begin at once. They pay more attention to this point than to the appearance of the hops. The wild hop is a very pretty, graceful climbing plant, but not equal to the cultivated female plant. It looks well in our hedges mixed with some of the beautiful autumnal berries that ripen about October; but I am not aware that it is ever used medicinally. King Pepin is said to have been the first person (of whom there is any record) to have mentioned hops, and the passage occurs in a letter of donation, in which his Majesty speaks of 'humuloraiæ'; but I fancy he will be better remembered in France for his efforts to conciliate Pope Gregory and the organ he presented to the Church of St. Corneille at Compiegne, than as the proprietor of a hop garden."

CHAPTER VI.

CULTIVATION AND PRODUCTION ON THE CONTINENT OF

EUROPE.

As the consumption of beer in most countries increases daily, so the production of hops necessarily makes equal* progress.

At the recent Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus and Educational Appliances, held at South Kensington in 1876, there was shown a most interesting general map of the hopgrowing districts of Central Europe, by J. Carl and C. Homan, of Nuremberg. There were also shown special maps of several of the principal continental hop-growing countries; an "agrarian, statistical, and general map of the European hop-growing districts on the Continent and in England;" "tabular geographical representations of the cultivation of hops and of the hop consumption of the whole world," with a classification of the various sorts of hops, and comparative tables of the agrarian measures and commercial weights. These maps were exceedingly interesting, as showing the locality and extent of cultivation of a plant so important as the hop.

According to the statistics exhibited at the Scientific Col

G

lection and at South Kensington in 1876, there were under

The following, however, appears to me to be the true acreage under hops in various countries, as far as can be. ascertained with any degree of precision, at the latest period:

It is worthy of notice in connection with the extent of the liquor traffic in this country, that the English consumption of hops is by far the greatest of any country, for while England shows a consumption of 600,000 cwt., Germany, the next largest, gives only 321,000 cwt., and Austria 100,000 cwt., the remaining countries decreasing in quantity much more rapidly.