The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-04
American Hops May
Make English Beer
British Crop Is Declining Steadily and Our Growers Nav Have
to Come to the Rescue.

egation is in process of formation
which will go to the United States in
the course of a month or so to in
quire into the hop-growing methods
obtaining there. The gentlemen chos-
en- up to the present are representatives
OF the following firms: Messrs. Baker.
Wnlte & Morgan. of London, Wilkinson
az sons, of Liverpool, BeechinS e, Rich
ARDS, of Canterbury, and a member of
the firm of Barclay, Perkins, Reid.
Coomoe Co.. the largest brewers in
treat Britain. 1t is felt by the Brew
ers association and the leading hon
merchants that the English climate is
becoming year after year less suited tn
favorable hop raising. but it is under
STOOD at the same time that the Amer
lean hop is a harder species and that
II might flourish in English soil while
W,iithstandlng the great difference in
clmate.' If after taking expert evil
dence on the subject the delegation
considers that the introduction of the
american species into the English hon
flelds would be productive of good re-
suits, 1t will have an opportunity Of
testing its merits next season. If nor
a syndicate will be formed to purchase
hop fields in the States.
English Hop-Pickers Are a Motley
Crew.
England's greatest hop fields ara
IN Kent, and the month OF
september is looked forward to eagerly
py the poor of London as the season of
TINS annual country excursion. which
takes the form of four weeks hon
picking. About 10000 men. women.
and children are employed in the hon
neIds during the month of September
In despoiling the hop plants of their
catktns, as the green flowers are
termed, and of this number at least
zO'OOO are tramps and semi criminals;
oO,OOO are the very poorest of the Door.
and the remainder is made up of coun-
try people and well-to-do workmen,
and even small shopkeepers and their
families, who prefer to take their holt
days in the hop fields and at the same
time earn money.
Towards the end of August the exo-
dus from Whitechapel, the Borough
and other poor districts of London to
the hop district of Kent begins The
destitute tramp and beg their food or
the journey, which occupies about q
week, as the majority can only travel
about ten miles daily, as then are en-
numbered with their women folk and
children. The men usually carry a
bundle containing old rugs and blan.
kets, and perhaps a kettle and a fec
plates.
Later on the railway companies ad.
vertise cheap excursions and run hop
pers' trains from midnight until a.
M These trains are composed of con-
demned carriages, which have to be
disinfected after every journey.
The hoppers, on arrival at the fields,
are accommodated in rough wooden
sheds. and the invasion of Kent by this
horde of unwashed has frequently been
responsible for outbreaks of epidemics,
notably the smallpox outbreak at Maid
stone seven years ago.
The fields, however, present an ami
mated and pretty sight during the pick
| ing season. Work commences half an
hour after daybreak and continues till
| dusk A man, his wife and three chill
| dren can earn, if they pick assiduousiy,
| about Sc weekly, and in the fields
where the American method of running
wires across the poles In the pattern
of spiders web Is adopted, instead OF
the old English style of letting the
hops trail up single poles, $3.50 weekly
can be earned, and the grower receives
20 per cent more return per acre.
Quite number of broken down pro-
fessional men and women are to be
found in the ranks of the pickers, and
Viscount Hinton, the claimant to the
Poulett peerage, used at one time to go
hopping regularly.