The distribution of the area of hop-cultivation in the United States
showed great changes during the last decades of the 19th and the first
decade of the 20th century. During the earlier portion of that period
New York was the chief hop-growing state of the Union, but toward the
end of it a great extension of hop-growing took place on the Pacific
coast (in the states of Oregon, California and Washington), where the
richness of the soil and mildness of the climate are favourable to the
bines.
The average annual produce of hops in the United States from 1900 to
1906 was 423,471 cwt.; of this quantity 80% was raised in the three
states of the Pacific coast, where the yield per acre is much larger
than in New York. In the latter state the yield does not appear to
exceed 5 or 6 cwt. per acre, whereas in Oregon it is 9 or 10 cwt., and
in Washington and California from 12 to 14 cwt. The average annual
export (chiefly to Great Britain) in the years from 1899 to 1905 was
108,400 cwt.; the average import (chiefly from Germany) is about 50,000
cwt.