The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-13
PROSPECTSO HOP GROWERS
PROMISE OF IMMENSE YIELD
ALL OVER THE WORLD.
The Price That California Hops
Will Bring is As Yet an
Unknown Quantity.

with the single exception OF new
York State, the hop districts the world
over promise an extraordinary yield.
In New York present indications are
that the crop will fall below that of
last year about 10 per cent
Heretofore the hop districts of Aus
tralia and New Zealand have failed to
produce enough to satisfy local de-
mands, but this year the output far
exceeds the demand and the surplus
(the crop has been harvested is being
unloaded on the London market.
Careful estimate fixes the product of
English yards for the present season at
100000 hundredweight, or within 3d.
goo hundredweight of the consumption
in the British Isles. Most of the ex-
ira supply needed in England will be
drawn from the United States and Ger
many, and as both this country and
Germany, judging from present indica-
tons, will have a great surplus, it is
expected that competition for the Lon
don trade will be keen, with tendency
to lower prices to the detriment of the
American and German growers and to
the advantage Of the British consumers.
The foregoing summary of the hop
situation is given by the foremost deal
ers and growers of the Sacramento dis
trict, without however, considering the
possibility that heavy and continued
rains in Germany and England within
the next few weeks may materially al
ter the outlook.
The prospect for a heavy. yield on
the Pacific Coast has never been bet
ter, and careful estimates, based on re-
ports from the several yards of each of
the districts, fixes it about as follows:
Oregon, $1,000 bales; Washington, 3d.
coo bales, and California 81, 600 bales.
OF the SO, 600 estimated bales for CAL
ifornia, the Sacramento Valley is ex-
pected to yield $4,000; Sonoma County,
1900; Mendocino County, 5000; Santa
Cruz County, 3, 500, and Alameda, $500,
while Shasta and other counties are ex-
pected to swell the number 500 or 1000
bales.
The quality of the hops throughout
the State is exceptionally fine, the sea-
son having been the best possible. Ow-
ing to the prevailing GOODNESS the crop
matured slowly and but little of the
growth went into leaf and vine. The
sun had full swing at the hops, the re-
suit being that the hop is finely colored
and rich in lupulin. Added to this, the
old crop-that of 1S9S-has been well
clean up, and the fresh article will have
free swing in local as well as foreign
markets.
F. v. Flint, grower and dealer, yes
terday informed Record Union re-
porter that in certain spots in the
yards around Sacramento the yield will
reach two tons to the acre, and that
in these spots, poles and wires are
breaking under their load. Such con-
ditions have no precedent in local. hop
yards.
Owing to the scarcity of leaves.
there is no mold in local yards and
lice are so scarce as to have done no
damage to the growing crop. The hops
which will be put on the markets from
the Sacramento Valley promise to be
the best quality ever grown in the dis
trict
Most of the hops in this district are
owned by the growers outright. Very
few contract sales have been made,
the growers holding out steadily for
better prices than those offered by buy.
ers. This condition of affairs proba-
bly, arose from past troubles.-with con-
tractors, and while the present outlook
for an enormous yield gives no reason
to, expect fancy prices, both grower
and dealer expect that the sales will
net neat sums to growers, though moth
ing to compare with those of the sea-
sons when the industry on the Pacific
Coast was young.
A few of the growers in this Nicin-
ity expect to begin picking this week
probably on Tuesday-but the great
majority will not commence harvest
ing until the Goth to the 25th. 1T is
believed among hop men generally that
growers who begin harvesting this
week are making a mistake, <for- the
reason that owing to the cool weather
the hops are not yet fully developed
and will lack in color-in other words,
that the hops picked this week will
not bring the prices of those harvested
later, and that placing them on the
market may injure future sales from
this district. 1t is safe to say that by
the 25th, hop harvesting will be in full
blast.
The question of pickers and the prices
to be paid them is the one which is at
present agitating both grower and
picker. While it is believed that there
are plenty of pickers, white, Chinese
Japanese. and Indians. very.afew <on-
tracts have as yet been made Near
Elk Grove. it is understood that one
grower has agreed to pay his pickers
81 per hundred, but the general feel
Ing is that that figure will not become
general Growers are talking about