WELLINGTON. NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 4 September 1928, Page 4

WELLINGTON. NEWS

ENGLISH HOP TRADE

(Special to " Guardian.”)

WELLINGTON, August 30,

The English hop trade is said to bo suffering from a severe crisis. About live years ago a Hop Growers’ Association was formed to regulate supplies and supervise marketing conditions. This was a voluntary organisation and has not mado a success oif its scheme. Last season the growth of hop plants in England suffered from had weather and vermin. The yield was prejudiced by vermin and'continued cold temperatures and a poronospora caused (considerable damage, impairing both quality and colour.

The acrcago according to official .figures, in 1027 was reduced by 10 per cent and the yield of a further 10 per cent of the acreage was not to be picked. suggesting that the crisis in English hop-growing has increased in the course of 1928" Messrs J. Barth and Son, in their hop report for 1027-28 point out that in March last the combine known as Hop Growers had decided upon a further reduction of the acreago by 20 per cent. Holders of about 10 per cent of the acreage remained outside the pool and these contend that the payment system of the pool favours growers o>f inferior quality hops of abundant yield. England obviously lias an over-production of inferior hops .which are in poor demand, while good qualities sell quickly. Ever since the pool has existed it has never yet succeeded in selling more than 80 per cent of a crop. In order to clear the market of those large unsaleable stocks extraordinary measures, quite unique were resorted to. Sixty thousand pockets of 1924 hops stored in Belgium were sunk in the sea. The lots of 1924 and 1925 stored in England, reported to ho 55,000 pockets of 180lh each, were sold as manure at a price of 2s (id a pocket, a price representing the mere value of the sack, after being saturated, with petrol in order to make them unfit for brewing purposes. Considering a cost price of £5 per cwt, the material destroyed may be valued, at £1,000,000. There are still existing large stocks of unsold 1920 and 1927 hops. Instead of meeting the competition of foreign hops by impioving the quality of their produce English hop-growers try to increase the already huge import duty of £4 per cwt; as it seems an increase to £5, with a preference as at present of 25 pel cent reduction on hops imported from the colonies, will find hut little resistance on the part of the English brewers. It is stated that Professor E. S. Salmon, Wye, Kent, is breeding new remunerative varieties of hops and is meeting with considerable success. COMPRESSED GRASS.

It is generally recognised that grass when allowed to grow to a considerable height loses much of its nutritive value. While it is young, from two to five inches high, it is sqid to he equivalent in food value to such a high class cattle feed as linseed cake. Hay is cheap fodder, and that is saying the best of it. It. cannot he assimilated in large quantities by cmvs giving heavy milk yields without endangering their yield. Nor is it of use for the production of young prime bcei—the tf baby beef which has come into so much prominence in recent years. Therclore it would he of much economic value i 1 this rich young grass could ho preserved in a more ‘ palatable and concentrated form than hay for use during the dry season. The manufacture of a suitable grass cake for ordinary cattle cakes, and as an alternative to the making of hay is suggested by Mr A. R. Duekham, a member of the Empire Marketing Board, Although young grass posscsI sed distinct advantages for griv'.iug ; purposes it had several disadvantages when the problem of conservation was considered. It had approximately the same water content as older grass, hat its internal moisture was richer in soluble organic constituents. Therefore ia leaving the cut grass at the mercy of the weather lor limited periods there may be a considerable loss of the nutritive factors by means of respiration, fermentation, or bleaching by rain or dew. On the other hand the pro-drying reduced by natural evaporation the drying ensts by half. It is suggested that when the grass is dried there arc three possible forms in which it may he put outlie market—either ground to a meal or in hales stick as those of compressed hay, or in some form ol cake, cube, or briquette. It is to the grass cake that -Mr Duekham pins his faith, 'the most difficult part of the problem appears to he the question of cost. Using reliable figures as to conditions in England lie estimates the value of finished grass cake would be £9 per

ton. It is estimated that from every acre 3.J tons of dried young grass could he obtained and this would be worth •CS2 as compressed cattle feed.