Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-29 00:00:00

BELFAST CORN MARKET.-SEPT 28

There was a small supply of wheat at our mark-t to-day, and
prices were very firm. Other articles unchanged from Fr,day's
prices.

GLASGOW PIG IRON MARKET.-SEPT. 28.

The market was very firm to-day at the annexed quotations :
Mixed Nos , buyers 68s, seUers 68s 3d ; No. 1, buyers 635 61, sellers
69s ; No. 3, buyers 63s 6d, sellers 64s per ton.

THE HOP HARVEST.

With the exception, perhaps, of Indigo, there is no plant subject to
such vicissitudes as the hop plant. It is one of th • most difficult to
bring to maturity, and until the fruit is pied and dried, the grower
can never calculate what his returns will be. In the hop growing
counties fortunes are made and lost with marvellous rapidity. One
of the late lorgest growers in the cm ity of Kent was te :end times
known to have been worth half a mill on, and as often was he reduced
aim tit to poverty, and, b tt for the aid of hop-factors, would have
be -n completely ruined. As it is, he died bat a poor men. The
most successful of modern hop growers was the late Alderm on Lui•as,
who left a large fortune derived almost entirely from growing hops.
During the four or five months that the plow is growing, the p'auter
is a prey to perpetual anxiety. He never knows what a day may
bring forth ; a single night is frequently sufficient to destroy the hope
of the season ; while, on the other hand, it som •times happens, as in the
present year, that when he anticipates getting nothing, he will get a
remarkable good crop. But the history of the hop phis year aff
a remarkable example of the vicissitudes to which the plant is subject.
This year wUI be an extraordmnary one in the ristory of the hop trade,
and will be referred to, say Messrs. Hewett and Co., the hop factors,
in their market letter. hereafter, as illustrating the uncersainty, the
fickleness of tiiis singular plant, and the liability of the oldest and
bast judgment 10 b 3 d ceiv 3d.

At the end of May there was a severe attack of fly throughout
Sussex. the Weald of Ken', and E ist Kent, which progresee i into
thorough black blight, till on the 1 ith of Jul; the d tzy was set, and
fairly, too, a, .E 100,090, although Worcester, Faraham, and a pin of
Mil-Kent were comparat vely free. Extreme hot weather, which
usually dissipates a blight, in this instaice noly he more confirmed
it ; and the draught which continued up to the sth of August actually
threatened the loss of tho crop on the above grounds. On that day,
h swerer, and far several days afterwards, the plantaVons wore visite
with heavy reins and thudder show ors, which saysd the crop; and
from thenceforth the temperature and the weathtr have been ever/-
thing that could be desired for pro facing and pe iecting the fruit.
The estimate of t :es duty has now reached £220,000. The actual
result will proba.d, be cmsideraely below this sum, but this estimate
is made use of as a means to create a panic am 'ntr, the holders of
yearlings and the producers of the new crops, so to get the article
down below it just value ; but it is believed th it when the trade is
fa r y set going, after all the hods are picked, there will be good
de nand for hops, both old ani new, and the holders will probably get
a fair price for their harvest,

Th • consu option of hops has, during the last twenty yea's, r early
doubled. the introduction of pale ale, add its being now almost
universally drunk both in this country and abroad, effectually pre-
vents that accumulation of hops which frequently oc tarred after one
or two good years in succession. The exports of beer have more than
trebled, and consumers in Australia and India will drink almost as much
as can be brewed. So large, in fact, is the cons motion, tha most of
even the very largest brewers, at the end of the summer, are oblged
to s int their customers, and are quite drunk out. With respect to
the present crop, a considerable portion will not come intoo the market
at all, because the great brewers regularly take almost all that is
grown. Nearly the whole of the splendid hops of BIM-Kent fired their
way to one s r two large establishments. The Farnham and East
Kent are disp,sed of in the some manner; so that the general con-
sumer will proba"ly only have to choose from the infe for hops of
Sussex and the Weald of Kent, Such has been the uncertainty of
the present crap, however, that specu ators have been arras t t o act, at
all events in that random spirit which gen. rally characterises all
parties engaged in the hop trade.
But the influence of a gcod or hal crop is most widely diffused; it
not only affects the g owers themselves, but also that influential
body of men, the hop factors, who are expected to make advances on
the growing crop, and who, it it fails, have to wait until the following
year before they receive their money. The amount of be ting on the
estimated duty is something extrasrdinary, and is pecnli.r to the hop
trade. The Sams betted are frequently very large in amount, and the
spirit is so widely spread throughout the hop growing distri:ts, that
there is scarcely a farmer—nay, even a small traleamm—t at has not
hls five or ten pounds on the coming event. This gambling in the
hop trade is not so general), known as gambling on the Turf ; but it
is very doubtful whether there is not more money pending on the
duty than is frequently the case either on the Derby or the St. Leger.
No sooner is the duty declared, which is generally done at the latter
end of October, or the beginning of November, than hop dinners are
given, at which what are terme i sets are ntade, as to the value of the
crop of the following year. This, of course, must be entirely guess-
work, for it is impossible for any man to foretell what the next
year will produce. These hop dinners are held periodically, and
there is as much hedging as there would be on any great comiag
horse race. It is also observed that the bets on the hop duty are as
a rule punctiliously pad, and a man who falls in this respect ig
more generally lowered in public estimation than if he had become
bankrupt in any ordinary business. Such are a few of the POCI.I-
- laxities attendant upon the produCtioll of this very useful ankh) of
consumption.