THE HOP INDUSTRY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 94, 6 May 1903, Page 2

THE HOP INDUSTRY.

I*o the Editor. Sh. — A few weeks ago I read letters' on hop-picking. It seems to me as if two of the writers are closely connected, as in both letters I notice that the person is very ignorant offarming. One's idea was to have the picking on a sliding scale, and another has come to the sense to allow the grower a little more profit by only paying 3d for Bumfords and 2£d for Ordinary hops. " Honesty " should go . into figured and cOullt Up the expense of getting land under cultivation. I have known instances where it cost £8 an ficfe I before you could plough the ground. Then there was also the cost of working the hop ground, providing poles or wire as the case may be, training vines, putting on artificial manure, attending to the garden, providing charcoal, coke, bales, insurance on Mhi, and then for two years selling hops at 41 d to sd. Surely if a picker had an ounce of oommoii sense he would think twice before' criticising the grower. I maintain that if a family of four or five pickers can earn £1 a day that is very fair wages., and no cause for complaints. I admit that the grower is often to blame n measuring, as I have noticed in some gardens that the hand is pressed down on the hops in the measure. This is unjust, and sh dtild ridt be done, for one should do unto others as he would wish that they should do unto him. I was pleased to notice the measuring in a garden in another dstrict, where the measurer only filled the measure — just . made it even ; and a picker remarked : "He just measures splendidly." In this garden some of the piokers averaged over 30 bushels a day, and were paid 2sd for the ordinary hops and 3d for Bumfords. I am ,etc, OBSEEVEE.