BEER BREWING A BENEFIT TO FARMERS.
Thus far we have been chiefly occupied with the sanitary and social
advantages that attend the general use of beer in a community, but
there is another phase of the question that is worth careful attention.
Barley and hops are the foundation of beer and we propose to show in
this chapter some of the benefits that attend their cultivation for
brewing purposes and which are by no means confined to the cash price
received from the brewer. They can be raised to good advantage when
there is no such home consumption, but the real possibilities of these
crops are only attained when there are breweries near at hand. How
this is true will be understood after an examination of the following
statistics.
The cultivation of hops is in itself a more important industry than is
generally supposed, but for the purpose of this chapter it is of so
much less consequence than that of barley that it may be dismissed in
very few words. A few years ago our own production was not sufficient
to supply the brewers, and in 1872 we paid in round numbers $785,525.00
to foreign growers. The next year the import was $1,310,627.00 and
in 1874 reached $1,303,686.00. Since that time the tide has turned
and each of the past four years has shown an export to a considerable
amount, the figures taken in the order of the years being as follows:
1875, $1,286,500.00; 1876, $1,348,521.00; 1877, $2,305,355.00; 1878,
$2,152,873.00. The yearly consumption in this country is about
30,000,000 pounds, which after having served their purpose in the
brewery, furnish an excellent manure, especially for potatoes.
According to the last report of the United States Commissioner of
Agriculture, there were in 1877, no less than 1,614,654 acres under
cultivation with barley, and the product was 34,441,400 bushels
at an average value of 70 cents a bushel, making a total value of
$24,028,644.00 for the crop. The average yield to the acre was 21.3
bushels, and the average value to the acre $14.91, as against $10.72
for hay, $9.54 for corn, $9.25 for oats, $8.87 for rye and $15.08 for
wheat. Only three crops, potatoes, tobacco and wheat yielded a higher
value to the acre, and only six, wheat, corn, potatoes, oats, hay and
cotton had a greater total value. Again, the northern latitudes produce
the best barley and accordingly we find that in the six Eastern States,
the average value to the bushel was a little over 78 cents. In these
states the number of acres under cultivation was only 51,065, the
product 986,900 bushels, the average value to the acre $15.11, being
more than that of any other crop except potatoes. Notwithstanding all
this, we do not even now raise enough for home consumption. The import
of barley in 1877 was no less than 10,285,957 bushels at a value of
$7,887,886.00 on which a duty of 20 cents per bushel was paid by the
consumer, in addition to charges for freight and commission, all of
which could and should have been saved to our people. Nearly eight
million dollars is too large a sum to neglect when it lies at our very
hand.
[Illustration: ISRAEL PUTNAM,
_The great American General, Brewer and Tavern Keeper at Brooklyn,
Conn._ (1718-1790.)
_See Page 27._]
We have said that high latitudes are favorable to barley. It is chiefly
grown in the northern tier of states and in Canada, and a state
like Maine for instance would find immense advantage in an enlarged
production of this crop even under existing conditions. But suppose the
restriction on brewing were removed, that instead of being crushed out
by local law it were encouraged and fostered. It is not easy to compute
the material assistance such a course would be to the farming community
and the state at large, and yet the direct gain would be small in
comparison with the incidental advantages. For the proper illustration
of this point we must ask the reader to follow and keep in mind two
separate series of facts which we are about to present. The first
statistical and relating to the “refuse” of brewing establishments, and
the second general.
The breweries of the United States use annually about 30,000,000
bushels of malt, which yields, according to A. Schwarz of New York,
2½ per cent. or 750,000 bushels of “sprouts.” Now in estimating the
comparative value of different kinds of fodder according to the albumen
contained it is usual to take hay as the basis of comparison. Air-dried
meadow hay contains 7 per cent. of albumen. “Sprouts” contain from 24
to 30 per cent., so that a hundred bushels of sprouts, weighing 1,200
pounds, are equal in value to 4,628 pounds of hay, and the annual
product of sprouts as above stated to 34,710,000 pounds of hay. This
same 30,000,000 bushels of malt yields at least 35,000,000 bushels of
“grains,” having a weight of 1,520,000,000 pounds, and from 4 to 5
per cent. of albumen. Taking 4½ per cent. as the average, 100 pounds
of grains have the same nutritive value as 64 pounds of hay and the
value of the product reaches that of 973,241,000 pounds of hay. It is
a proved fact that cattle fed on grains give better milk than when any
other fodder is used and this fact is specially appreciated in New York
and New Jersey, where the grains and sprouts are largely used with
most excellent results. These products must by no means be confounded
with the “slops” from distilleries, which is utterly different in
character—_as indeed every product of the still seems to be tainted
with some portion of the curse that has always clung to spirituous
liquors_.
The second and general consideration is this: The past agricultural
history of New England shows a succession of specialties, each running
its course until the advent of another which existing circumstances
made more profitable. The first was grain (except barley), then came
wool, and then potatoes, while the last and most promising is dairy
farming. It is yet in its infancy but it is already important. One
thing is sure, that farming on the old-fashioned plan has seen its day
in New England. The natural advantages of the West enable it to raise
and deliver many crops cheaper than they can be grown in the older part
of the country, and under the influence of this competition Eastern
farmers have grown poorer and poorer unless they have taken up a
specialty or possessed some unusual natural advantages. We submit that
the combination of dairy farming with the growth of barley will, even
under the existing laws, prove very remunerative. The facts already
adduced point directly to this conclusion. The figures show that barley
is a profitable crop and that northern New England is well adapted to
its growth. Moreover it thrives on a comparatively poor soil while most
of the other natural products that rank high in value involve a large
expense for manure, and in many cases a great deal of hand labor. Dairy
farms are known to pay well. What then will be the result of combining
the two industries as above indicated on terms favorable to both? But
this can only be successfully done by the establishment of breweries,
and sooner or later the people will understand all these facts and act
accordingly. _Remove the laws that now make brewing impossible, and a
new industry will spring up as if by magic_—we might well say three
new industries—for barley culture and dairies will grow to keep pace
with the demands and the grants of brewing. For it must be remembered
that brewing is not like some other forms of manufacture. What it takes
with one hand it gives with the other. It receives the farmer’s grain
and pays him a good price; it gives him valuable fodder and manure for
a sum that is small in proportion to the benefit conferred. It helps
put in motion the wheels of another separate business, the manufacture
of cheese and butter, and it is again the agricultural community who
profit by the development.
_Living in an age of progress we must recognize the fact and adapt
ourselves to it or we shall inevitably fall behind, and we do not
believe that the men of New England will long close their eyes to
the advantages offered by such a course as has been indicated. The
change must come, and sooner or later, a part of the change must be
the resolute and successful demand for a repeal of the laws that
choke industry. Maine men in especial have everything to gain. Their
business is stagnant, their population decreasing, poverty staring
them in the face and enforced idleness eating like a canker into their
very nature. They have it in their power to change all this, to become
rich, revive trade, make the state famous for progressive energy, and
banish the intemperance that now accompanies and aggravates all their
other ills and is accompanied by the other corrupting evils that, as
experience shows, always spring up in the shadow of a prohibitory law._
The matter well deserves more space than we can give, but we have
presented the leading facts and must leave them for the examination
and mature reflection of all who are interested. Great things have
been expected of beet-root culture in Maine and other states, and we
cannot close this chapter without a word in reference to this topic.
The Commissioner of Agriculture, in the prefatory remarks to his last
Report, says: “The effort to produce a sugar beet, and the belief
and expectation of many that the beet would be made to yield in this
country as in Germany and France, of good quality, in sufficient
abundance, and at a sufficiently low cost, to make it pay has not
been realized—although no pains and money have been spared to insure
success.” The difficulty is that the sugar beet will not thrive on poor
or exhausted soil, unless it is heavily manured. Such has been the
constant experience in those places where the experiment has received
most attention, _viz._, Chatsworth, Ill., Sauk county, Wis., and some
parts of the state of Maine.[20] New England is unfit for beet-root
culture, partly by nature and partly by the exhaustion of the soil,
while on the other hand it is as we have said eminently adapted to
barley. Even had the expectations of the more reasonable part of
the beet-growers of Maine been realized, the material advantages to
the people would not have compared with those to be attained by the
encouragement of breweries, the growth of barley and hops and the
establishment of dairies. All these things go together and stimulate
other branches of industry. There will be more demand for other crops,
particularly hay and oats, and for lumber for vats, barrels, tubs and
building purposes. A busy temperate people must thrive _and we have
shown what will make them busy and temperate_.
[20] The state of Maine is assisting the experiment with beet-root by
granting a premium of one cent a pound on all beet-root sugar produced
in the state, but even with this help the industry has failed to
establish itself to any considerable extent.