The Global Hop Crisis of 1893
An Auburn grower reports that 'red spiders' and extreme heat are devastating hop crops from Washington to England, threatening massive yield shortages.
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James Hart, the well-known hop grower of Auburn, was in the city yesterday and gave important information regarding the hop crop, having late advices from various parts of the world, which are favorable for higher prices. He says, 'I am in receipt of advices from Kent, England, dated August 20, that the first lots of common early have been sent into market and are selling at from 40 to 45 cents. The common opinion is that the better class of hops will readily sell at £12 to £13 per hundred weight, which will make it from 48 to 50 cents per pound. The crop is very much shorter than anticipated, growers being compelled to pick almost two weeks earlier than has ever been done before. Dry weather with continuous sun, combined with the ravages of the red spider, is drying up our hops on the poles to a most alarming extent and reducing our crop immensely.' Locally, Hart noted that while Yakima growers were seeing bids of 20 to 22 cents, they were holding out for higher prices as the Washington harvest was falling short of expectations.
“Dry weather with continuous sun, combined with the ravages of the red spider, is drying up our hops on the poles to a most alarming extent and reducing our crop immensely.”
In 1893, Washington's budding hop industry faced global agricultural volatility and invasive pests, echoing modern concerns about how climate change and environmental stressors impact the Pacific Northwest's specialty crop markets today.
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