Ezra Meeker's Hop Empire
A tour of the massive Puyallup Hop Company yards reveals a triumph of agricultural engineering and the battle against pests.
The state board of horticulture visited the Puyallup Hop Company’s yards near Kent. The site includes a galvanized iron tank on a tower for fire protection and rooms for pickers. Mr. Meeker has 138 acres of hops on the river. He has been raising hops for 27 years. In the lower yard, Mr. Meeker showed his scheme of only one vine being left to a hill, which was perfectly successful. The board of horticulture is in a quandary because growers are reluctant to burn their vines to kill hop lice as instructed. Meeker believes choice hops can be raised even with vermin present, provided they are fought with skill, as they do in England.
“No one now may argue the question, as it is settled beyond dispute, and Mr. Meeker is as pleased as any one could be.”
Ezra Meeker is a legend in Washington history, famous for both the hop industry and his later life work preserving the Oregon Trail. This passage highlights the tension between industrial agriculture, disease management, and the massive labor force required for the harvest in the Kent Valley.
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