Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1915-09-07
THOUSANDS PICK HOPS
HARVEST IN POLK COUNTY NOW
WE'LL UNDER WAY.
Growers Association Aims to Control
Fifty Per Cent Of Non CONTRACTED
Product-Expects Good Prices.

now engaged in the Independence hop
district gathering the harvest from an
acreage closely estimated at 5000, OF
which the Willamette river town is
the logical center. Portland has sent
about 5000 persons into the hop yards
this season, the remaining number
coming from various parts of the
state. About 225 persons are requir-
ed to a 100-acre tract. Nearly all
the yards are short-handed this sea
son, accounted for from the fact that
the harvest began unusually early,
overlapping the grain harvest, and
the reduction from so to 40 cents per
box for picking, which is considered
by the growers to be fair price un-
der present market conditions. The
price outlook for 1915 non-contracted
hops is not encouraging; neither is it
depressing. The average hop man will
say that the price will be somewhere
between 12 cents and 40 cents. Twelve
cents is reckoned as the bottom price,
because it will cost 10 cents to get
the hops Sin the bale" this year. The
growers say the price will depend
mainly on the following: The ability
of the Hopgrowers association to
control a majority of the supply; the
buying activity of the London mar
ket; the quantity and quality of the
general output. There is no doubt
that market equilibrium will be
brought about in time by the forma-
ton of hopgrowers' associations. Hop
men agree that if fair percentage
of the supply can be controlled the
business can be made conservative.
Anyway, these associations which
now have taken definite form are
eliminating the middleman by selling
directly to the brewer.
J. S. Cooper of Independence, who
is engaged in association work, is of
the opinion that so per cent of the
non-contracted hops will be lined up
by the associations this year. If Lon
don firms come briskly in the market
and cheerfully pay the excessive ex-
ira cost of war insurance, high ex-
change and prohibitive freight rates,
the price will be good. 1t is evident
that there is a shortage of hops in
the country generally, but the quality
is excellent. This ought to make for
better prices certainly. Contrary to
some reports, the crop around Inde-
pendence is both heavy and of high
quality. C. A. Mclaughlin, big own
er and a man whose opinion is given
much consideration, says his yard will
average 400 pounds per acre and be-
lieves about $4,000 bales will be ship
ped from the country tributary to In
dependence.
The raising of hops in Polk county
furnishes employment to large num-
ber during the three weeks of the
harvest, and that hop-picking is re-
munerative is illustrated by the earn
ings of a family coming from the 81
letz country, where they have home
stead and where they have undertake
en- to carve out home for the future.
This rural resident is the possessor of
a wife and ten children, who are pick
ing in the Cooper yard, where, ac-
tTau sre AVERAGING fftv boxes per
daT or S9o Conntino "a ner day
60. eaS norsoc honJsomo srm Is he
~. ~ LTD No newsnaner man who
s .;s;tod th;s fold Tho mother sa;d she
tnnoJ $50 70 'rr nato moor sa0o which wonId
nIltIo nIptIa " thn nh;ldren tbrouob tbe win
~ ~, ,onths III and nrov;de tbon, with
49, M Gov sobnoI
'0OA a. n:..u.,
Ii o'n'i i''
But the Independence district is
not the only section OF POLK county
which produces hops: surrounding
Dallas are many smaller mop yards,
where hundreds OF persons are now
engaged, most OF them going forth IN
the morning and returning to town at
the close OF the days work. Inc up
land crops are showing up Detter tnan
was anticipated before the harvest be,
gan, while the quality is considered
fairly good by the growers. Some OF
the yards have finished pieklng' put