Statistical exhibits show that the consumption of malt in our country is proportionately as large as that of most beer-producing countries; and, necessarily, the cultivation of barley in the United States is in proportion thereto. We have this advantage over England, that we need not draw upon foreign countries for any part of our supply of barley, except when a particularly fine grade of grain is desired, such, for instance, as our neighbors on the St. Lawrence raise. In case of necessity, we might do without any foreign barley; England, on the other hand, imports large quantities from Russia, Austria, and the States on the North coast of Africa, and is dependent upon these foreign supplies, added to what they obtain here.
As in the case of hops, so also in regard to barley, the American industry might rely entirely upon domestic production, and, in fact, for all practical purposes it is wholly independent of foreign sources of supply. It has become so from necessity, not from choice, for many brewers still consider Canadian barley superior to our own, and would, without a doubt, were it not for the prohibitive duty, import considerable quantities of it and of malt. As matters stand, however, the importation of malt has ceased almost entirely and the importation of barley, bears to our exports the proportion of about one to one hundred. The following figures state the case clearly:
Exportation of Importation of Ten Years. Barley. Barley.
1899 to 1908 101,226,243 bushels 1,012,941 bushels
The aggregate quantities of malt imported during the same decade amounted to 34,658 bushels.
About three-fourths of the quantity of barley and an even larger proportion of hops exported from our country find a ready market in Great Britain and Ireland.
[Sidenote: THE UNIVERSAL DRINK OF THE FUTURE]
The phenomenal growth of brewing throughout the world during the past fifty years has given rise to many speculations as to the future of malt liquors, and many very able writers do not hesitate to call beer the universal drink of the future. Formerly confined to about four great States, the use of malt liquors is now known in every civilized land; and even in Southern countries, where the grape-vine abounds, beer is gradually superseding every other beverage. In France, a wine-country without equal, the most eminent scientists advocate the use of beer in preference to any other liquor. Spain, Italy, and even China and Japan, are now being invaded by King Gambrinus, and it is, indeed, only a question of time when beer shall be, as prophesied, the universal drink. The literature, in languages other than English and German, on the subject of beer, proves conclusively that the best minds regard it as a worthy undertaking to write on a question which materially affects the welfare of the people. A story is told of a band of young heathens, whom the Japanese Government sent to Germany to learn the art of brewing, which has since been introduced into that country. When the young men returned, muscular, yet rotund, with a healthy glow upon their cheeks, and elasticity and strength in all their movements, the ministers were so strongly impressed with the vitalizing effects of beer, that they ordered a merchantman to proceed to Germany, load up with beer, and return poste-haste to Japan. The result of this expedition is said to have accelerated the establishment of the first brewery in the Mikado’s realm.