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 that of 776,144 cwt. in 1886, and the smallest that of 281,291 cwt. in 1888, the former being more than 2 times the size of the latter. The crop of 1899, estimated at 661,373 cwt., was so large that prices receded to an extent such as to leave no margin of profit to the great body of growers, whilst some planters were able to market the crop only at a loss. The calculated annual average yields per acre over the years 1885 to 1907 ranged between 12.76 cwt. in 1899 and 4.81 cwt. in 1888. No other staple crop of British agriculture undergoes such wide fluctuations in yield as are here indicated, the size of the crop produced bearing no relation to the acreage under cultivation. For example, the 71,327 acres in 1885 produced only 509,170 cwt., whereas the 51,843 acres in 1899 produced 661,373 cwt.—19,484 acres less under crop yielded 152,203 cwt. more produce.

Comparing the quantities of home-grown hops with those of imported hops, of the total available for consumption about 70% on the average is home produce and about 30% is imported produce. The imports, however, do not vary so much as the home produce. Table. shows the average quantity of imports to and exports (home-grown) from Great Britain during the decades 1877–1886, 1887–1896 and 1897–1906.

The highest and lowest imports were 266,952 cwt. in 1885 and 145,122 cwt. in 1887, the latter in the year following the biggest home-grown crop on record. On a series of years the largest proportion of imports is from the United States.

During the twenty-five years 1881–1905 the annual values of the hops imported into England fluctuated between the wide limits of £2,962,631 in 1882 and £427,753 in 1887. In five other years besides 1882 the value exceeded a million sterling. The annual average value over the whole period was £921,000, whilst the annual average import was 194,000 cwt., consequently the average value per cwt. was nearly £4, 15s., which is approximately the same as that of the exported product. The quantities and values of the imported hops that are again exported are almost insignificant.

The distribution of the area of hop-cultivation in the United States showed great changes during the last decades of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century. During the earlier portion of that period New York was the chief hop-growing state of the Union, but toward the end of it a great extension of hop-growing took place on the Pacific coast (in the states of Oregon, California and Washington), where the richness of the soil and mildness of the climate are favourable to the bines.

The average annual produce of hops in the United States from 1900 to 1906 was 423,471 cwt.; of this quantity 80% was raised in the three states of the Pacific coast, where the yield per acre is much larger than in New York. In the latter state the yield does not appear to exceed 5 or 6 cwt. per acre, whereas in Oregon it is 9 or 10 cwt., and in Washington and California from 12 to 14 cwt. The average annual export (chiefly to Great Britain) in the years from 1899 to 1905 was 108,400 cwt.; the average import (chiefly from Germany) is about 50,000 cwt.

As the county of Kent has always taken the lead in hop-growing in England, and as it includes about two-thirds of the hop acreage of the British Isles, the recent developments in hop cultivation cannot be better studied than in that county. They were well summarized by Mr Charles Whitehead in his sketch of the agriculture of Kent, wherein he states that the hop grounds—or hop gardens, as they are called in Kent—of poor character and least suitable for hop production have been gradually grubbed since 1894, on account of large crops, the importation of hops and low prices. At the beginning of the 19th century there were 290 parishes in Kent in which hops were cultivated. A century later, out of the 413 parishes in the county, as many as 331 included hop plantations. The hops grown in Kent are classified in the markets as “East Kents,” “Bastard East Kents,” “Mid Kents” and “Wealds,” according to the district of the county in which they are produced. The relative values of these four divisions follow in the same order, East Kents making the highest and Wealds the lowest rates. These divisions agree in the main with those defined by geological formations. Thus, “East Kents” are grown upon the Chalk, and especially on the outcrop of the soils of the London Tertiaries upon the Chalk. “Bastard East Kents” are produced on alluvial soil and soils formed by admixtures of loam, clay-loams, chalk, marl and clay from the Gault, Greensand and Chalk formations. “Mid Kents” are derived principally from the Greensand soils and outcrops of the London Tertiaries in the upper part of the district. “Wealds” come from soils on the Weald Clay, Hastings Sand and Tunbridge Wells Sand. As each “pocket” of hops must be marked with the owner’s name and the parish in which they were grown, buyers of hops can, without much trouble, ascertain from which of the four divisions hops come, especially if they have the map of the hop-growing parishes of England, which gives the name of each parish. There has been a considerable rearrangement of the hop plantations in Kent within recent years. Common varieties as Colegate’s, Jones’s, Grapes and Prolifics have been grubbed, and Goldings, Bramlings and other choice kinds planted in their places. The variety known as Fuggle’s, a heavy-cropping though slightly coarse hop, has been much planted in the Weald of Kent, and in parts of Mid Kent where the soil is suitable. In very old hop gardens, where there has been no change of plant for fifty or even one hundred years in some instances, except from the gradual process of filling up the places of plants that have died, there has been replanting with better varieties and varieties ripening in more convenient succession; and, generally speaking, the plantations have been levelled up in this respect to suit the demand for bright hops of fine quality. A recent classification of the varieties of English hops arranges them in three groups: (1) early varieties (e.g. Prolific, Bramling, Amos’s Early Bird); (2) mid-season or main-crop varieties (e.g. Farnham Whitebine, Fuggle’s, Old Jones’s, Golding); (3) late varieties (e.g. Grapes, Colgate’s).

The cost of cultivating and preparing the produce of an acre of hop land tends to increase, on account of the advancing rates of wages, the intense cultivation more and more essential, and the necessity of freeing the plants from the persistent attacks of insects and fungi. In 1893 Mr Whitehead estimated the average annual cost of an acre of hop land to be £35, 10s., the following being the items:—

Seven years later the average cost per acre in Kent had risen to quite £37.