Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1910-02-18
COAST HOPS ARE BEST
BUT ARE LEAST ADVERTISED,
SAYS E. CLEMENS HORST.
Oregon Growers Are Urged to Take
Steps to Secure Real Value of
Their Product.

e. Clemens Horst, writing the
Statesman from London, under date
of January 80, has the following tC
say:
The coast hops of the crops 1905
1906, 1907, and 1908 brought on ar
average three cents higher prices or
the English market than did the Eng
lish hops, but for this crop, viz, 1909,
the conditions are reversed, and coast
hops fetch on an average five cents
per pound less than the English.
This makes a difference of eight
grower, which difference could in a
large measure have been avoided If
the coast growers had co-operated in
campaign of advertising the actual
merits of the coast hops.
If hop prices were to stay for fu-
ture seasons where they are now, the
coast hop growers would not need to
care further about prices, but the high
prices make the low ones, and we have
to prepare now to hold our own when
low prices return. In the recent siege
of low prices, the German and Aus
trian hop growers increased the pro-
duction fully so per cent during the
same period that the coast growers
decreased their production over one
third, and, while coast growers were
plowing up, our importations heavily
increased, and the importations were
made at prices that would have kept
the coast growers in the business, and
at profit.
The hop average of Germany and
Austria is today much lighter than 1t
ever was, and the growers get 40 to 60
cents per pound for their hops.
The foreign hops owe their high
prices to cooperation among the grow
ers in causing their product to be well
written up and advertised.
The most important reason why
coast hops do not at all times sell in
the markets of the world at higher
prices than any other hops, is that they
take no interest in the matter them
selves, and they leave the making or
breaking of the reputation of the coast
hops to the dealers in hops, who after
all care only for their own profit, re-
gardless of the grower, and If the
dealers can make more profit in SELL
ing other hops, they naturally do not
boom the Pacifics. In fact, the most
coast hops that are bought by the
brewers in America are sold by the
dealers who sell foreign hops, which
they work on five and sometimes
eight cents per pound profit, and
while they cannot make over two
cents on the coast hops, naturally they
do all they can to sell the foreign hops
in our home market
OF course, prices Of hops from vari-
Gus countries vary with the extent of
the crops grown in the respective
countries but as the brewing value of
hops does not depend upon how many
are grown in the various countries,
the coast growers ought to work to-
gether to put before the brewers of
the world at first hand the merit of
the coast hops, and when the coast
hops sell on their merits they will al
ways sell at an average higher than
any other hops.
The principal brewing value of hops
as claimed by the brewers themselves,
is the soft resin of the hop, and in
these the Pacific coast hops hold the
worlds record, some of the coast hops
being richer therein than even the
world-famed Bohemian hops. But
the Bohemian hop growers, by direct
and judicious advertising among the
brewers, have established a reputation
that can be shaken by the coast grow
ers. but only by the coast growers
persistently putting the facts pertain
ing to the excellent brewing value of
the best coast hops.
Such a campaign by the coast grow
ers will need the cooperation of the
growers. It will involve only a trifl-
ing expense for obtaining analysis
from high class brewers chemists of
the best coast hops, in comparison
with best Bohemian, Bavarian, English
and New York state hops, and the
publication of the results in pamph-
let form, and distributing the same
periodically to the 1000 important
brewers in the world. The co-operat-
ion of the growers is necessary in or
der that the pamphlets carry weight,
which would not be carried were the
work carried on In the names of in
dividual growers.
Only today l received a pamphlet
published by the Bohemian hop grow
ers under the name Of Bohemian Ag-
ricultural Department" entitled "Bo-
hemian Hops the Best Hops in the
World" Every brewer in the world
gets this publication; it processes to
tell why Bohemian hops are the best,
but the very claims they make can be
used to prove the coast hops the best
Up to now, the coast growers have
done nothing to cause their hops to
get the valuation to which their merits
entitle them.