The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-05
FARM, FIELD, GARDEN
Hard to Get Truth About Hop
Yield and Prices.
BEE Wells AND soNNETs.
Protection for Face and Head When
Handling the Busy Insecfs-
Labor-savfns sfIo Described.
Country Gentleman.


II Is almost impossible for either the
brewer, the dealer or the statistlcian TO
tell the plain unyarnished truth about
hops. And il In an entire i'm possibility for
certain Of our financial journals TO do so.
The dealer naturally wants to make his
margin, and as there Is much competition,
OF course he has 10 manage adroitiy; so ne
assures the brewer that the growers are
loaded with hops, and that they can Dc
purchased at almost any price, while at the
same time he suayely informs the grower
that the brewer has nearly enough hops
to carry him through, and that II ne VIII
only hold and remain firm he can com.
mand any sum for his crop. He remains
"frm" until the market begins to decline
and until he is tired out, or pressing obi
cations force him to part with his crop az
price that suits the dealer.
The grower, in turn, hardly ever tells
the exact truth about his crop; If hops are
high he overestimates tit sounds fine to
be supposed to be making so much money.
If hops are low he underestimate il,
thereby hoping to influence the market
and produce a rise. If he has old hops on
hand he finds vermin in his yards In num-
bers like the sands of the sea; while II he
has sold his last bale his hops
are comparatively free from insect
pests and promise well; his neigh
bors,' however, are infested with
lice and are moldy. Il isn't safe to believe
him. Look for yourself and then doubt
your eyesight, lest it, too, may be unrelia-
bic. The grower, in fact. can hardly be
trusted to make an accurate statement OF
the number of boxes picked, or OF the
number of pounds to box-his boxes are
always heavy, somebody else's are light,
surprisingly so; he may have an excellent
record for yeracity in the ordinary affairs
of life, but neither churchly nor social
standing seems to save man from per-
juring himself with hop lies.
As for the brewer, Ananias and Sap
phira could not tell more audacious I'M
truths than he tells about the amount of
hops in hand and his possible require
ments. According TO his own showing
that is, according to the barrels of beer
manufactured, the amount OF hops which
he processes to use in them. and the avail
able supply-there is an amazing discrep-
ancy. He has made millions of barrels
he likes a splendid sum total of the pro-
duct set down to his account-but where
did he get his hops? The truth is, he
doesn't use many; he is palming off hop
"oleomargarine" on the public, thus max
ing each glass of this liquid legacy from
old King Gambrinus fluid untruth-it
purports to be made of hops, but is not;
and if its real ingredients could be listed it
would be found in many cases to be dele
terious. drug-laden, thirst-producing
drink, which the brewer himself would
not dare to indulge in. There should,
rightfully, be stringent law passed COM
peliing the dishonest brewer to label his
drug for the protection of the honest arti-
Gle, the public and the hop grower.
Again. the mendacity of certain of our
financial journals is appalling. There is
| one newspaper in particular which has
been considered of repute, although now
| falling into wide disfavor. which contra
diets itself every few days; it blows hot
| and cold, high and low; prints the mar
| ket, in short. to suit the highest bidder.
| Now. as farming community, we have
no use for paper that can be manipu-
| lated by the spectators; We want, instead,
/ one that will give us an honest, unbiased
| report. The journal to which I refer
| played into the hands of the spectators
| last fall and made a handsome profit for
| them, but misled half the growers and
many of the dealers, and ought to be sup
| pressed as an untruthful, dishonest publ
| cation.
The statistician seems equally liable to
| go astray. In March he informed us that
according to the law of supply and de-
mand there were not enough hops in the
country to last the brewer until the md
die OF July, and by the utmost stretch of
the crop there could not help being bare
market in September-yet the prices
steadily declinedl Why2 Because the
dealers undersold each other, and then sat
in public places with lugubrous coun-
tenances and fished with this bait: 1--WE
the market. England has found a hon
mine, Germany has several million more
bales III her warehouses than we supposed;
the coming crop will be immense; the
poles in Washington and California are
grooming with hops. Why, there will be
bales and bales for which there viii be no
use.n