Page:Circular, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Botany.djvu/174



Although the climatic conditions of Saaz play an important role in the production of a fine hop, the soil conditions are even more important. In fact, the growers and buyers are so convinced of this influence of the soil upon the quality of the product, that they have divided the region about Saaz into three zones, and the hops are graded as first, second, or third quality, according to the zone in which they were grown. The grades are known as: I, Saaz Stadt (city); II, Saaz Bezirk (district); and III, Saaz Kreis (county).

To regulate the grading and to insure the buyer that the hops he orders are of the quality he desires, coming from the particular zone he has stipulated, a stamping house has been erected by the Hop Growers Society of the city. The aim of this society is to maintain the high reputation of the Saaz hop and insure by an official stamp or seal placed upon every package examined by its officers that the contents were produced in one of the zones above described. There are 480 registered members of this society, each of whom furnishes an accurate account of the number of poles of hops he has grown during the season. With these data at hand it is an easy matter to ascertain if a grower has sold more hops than he has grown, or, in other words, has imported hops from another region and sold them as Saaz hops.

This society has been in existence for 66 years and has lately built a new hall and steam drying house, which is one of the first in the region. The evaporator has a capacity of 1,300 to 1,400 pounds per seven hours, and the charge to growers is $1.60 for drying 68 bushels of green hops (120 pounds of cured hops). The officer in charge, Mr. Karl Müller, states that with this steam-heating apparatus the hops can be dried at a temperature higher than that which is considered the limit in ordinary drying houses, viz, 89.6° F., the process thus being shortened and a greener color preserved, which is more to the fancy of European buyers, although not necessarily indicative of superior quality.

The best hops are produced upon a peculiar red clay loam, called the Rothliegende, which lies along a small stream, the Goldbach, the waters of which are colored by the soil a warm, yellowish red.