Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1895-04-05
HOP PRICES RUINOJJS.
.1nE LEGISLATURE HI
IMPORTS Atac EXPORTS UNDER THE
NEW TARIFF.

The Markets Of tho World Open 70 %, but
We Sell Less Hops-It Does Not Pay
Our Farmera to Pick Their Crops-Twot to
Ton Cents the Best Prices Obtainsblo.
Many years ago American grown
hops used to sell in the New York mar.
ket anywhere from to 10, cents per
pound. As it costs from to- 10 cents to
market pound of hops, the American
farmers were not growing rich at the
business, and consequently they asked
congress to give them protection. This
was done under the Mckinley tariff to
the extent of a duty of Is cents per
pound upon foreign hops imported into
the United States
The result of this protective tariff was
that the price Of American hops adj
vanced till they sold all the way from
30 to 30 cents per pound in the New
York marietta price that made but
little difference to the expense Of the
brewers, because there is less than a
pound of hops used in a barrel of beer.
Still the brewers, who belong to an
English syndicate, objected to paying
more money for the hops, consequently
every effort was used to have the Nc
Kinley protective tariff abolished. The
duty was not entirely abolished, but it
was reduced to cents per pound.
During the last six months, just be-
fore and since the German tariff bill
became law, the New York hop market
has been literally dead. The very prim-
est grades Of hops may sell as high as II
cents per pound, but the range from
common to prime hops is from 6 to 8
cents-a price at which the American
farmers lose money. In the country dis
tricts of New York state, where hops
are grown, we notice that sales have
been made as low as . cents per pound,
and it would undoubtedly have paid
the farmers better to have let their hops
rot on the vines.
It must not be thought that this low
range Of prices for American hops is due
to an enormous surplus supply, because
we read that ''stocks on the Pacific coast
are reducing steadily" Again, in the
country, at Schoharie, 1.-THE local market
has assumed an air Of activity This
further appears to be, as far as we have
been able to gather. the only instance
where the markets Of the world are open
to American hops, because we find that
"the London market is absorbing con-
siderable. Another London report says
there is "a sound steady trade Still
another English report gives the news
that "ohoice English (hops are scarce
and command full rates. I"
From Germany it is reported, in re-.
gard to the hop market at Nuremberg,
that the tendency is firm. Again from
Northampton, England, we learn
that out of some 80, 900 hundredweights
unsold from last years English crop
- considerable proportion will proba,
bly, never see the inside of brewery,
owing to their poor quality. The same
authority states that practically no hops
are being sent to the English market
from the continent of Europe. Also that
there are comparatively few Pacifcs
and States on offer.'
Here we find, then, that stocks are
being reduced on the Pacific coast; that
the London market is absorbing oonsid-
cradle hops; that considerable Of their
supplies will never be used in breweries;
that there is none to spare on the con-
tinent of Europe, and that there are
very few American hops Offering in the
English market. So, evidently, this is
one of the instances where the markets
Of the world are open to an American
product.
And what is the result? The English
hop buyers have the trade SO we'll in
hand that they are able to control the
price until American hops sell any
where from 2 to 10 cents-a price for
which it does not pay our hop growers
to raise them and place them upon the
market. This is what our farmers get
for selling their product in the markets
Of the world under the policy of free
frqda