The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1899-05-18
THE HOP OUTLOOK.
portland Merchants Observations
After Tour of the washington
and Oregon Districts.

Captain George Pope, Portland hop
merchant, recsntly returned from a
tour of inspection of the hop fields OF
Washington and Oregon. In discuss
ing the seasons prospects he said:
"My tour of inspection took me
through the Puyallup valley and
Southern Washington, and from what
have seen the unreasonable weather
has worked a great hardship on the
hopgrowers in both states.
"Most growers have been able to ac-
complish very little in the way of Gull
tivation in the Puyallup valley. There
are few yards which have been well
cultivated, because their location was
favorable, as regards drainage, but In
by far the greater mum Der of yards the
initial work of raising a crop remains
to be done. Some of the yards on
White river look we'll, and the young
vines are in progress of being trained,
but as a rule saw few yards where
the young vines were above the ground.
1.-THE Patterson yard, at Olequa,
looked we'll; evidently much work had
been done there up to date, the nature
of the soil admitting cultivation.
Throughout the Willamette valley
may say that find the yards in more
forward condition, although quite a
number of growers have not yet COM
menced to cultivate. This is notice
able on low-lying ground. On the
higher upland prairies the young vines
are coming up strong and healthy,
especially where there was fall cultiva-
ton. At Hampden Grange, on Elliott
Prairie. where my firm controls large
yard, we have vines up to the wires,
which are 10 feet above the the ground.
but we also have portion OF our yards
where the outlook is not SO reassurlng,
because we could not do any fall pillow
ing. However, from what l observed
in Clackamas, Marion. Linn and Polk
counties, / have come to the conclusion
that we have the prospect of very ex-
cellent crop, taking of course into con-
sideratlon that for the past two or three
years a great number of yards have
been allowed to deteriorate on account
of poor or lack of cultivation. In some
sections | have noticed the young
shoots are already being attacked by
the aphis, but l do not attach much
Importance to this as few days of hot
weather is sufficient to kill off the
ground CROP of this pest. 1t is the
June-July brood of the aphis that plays
such havoc in our hop fields, but as We
are now having our full share of pre-
cipitation it is reasonable to infer that
when the weather settles we shall get
our just due of sunshine and warm
weather, and as we are having an alb
normal amount of rain now, it is but
fair to predict we shall have CORE
spending summer and fall of dry
weather.
''On the whole I am we'll satisfied
with the outlook, both from mer.
chants and growers point Of view.
This is the situations: Should all hop
growing sections of the world be equal
ly we'll favored as Oregon and Wash
ington, the production of this years
crop might be in excess of what is
wanted, but l do not look for this, as
my observations for many years lead
me to the conclusion that when one
section is well-favored, another section
suffers correspondingly, either from
drouth, hail, wind, frost or aphis. The
new crop will therefore come on an al
most bare market, and l look for prices
that will recoup the growers for the
past losses"