issued a hop circular, sending it to more than six hundred
correspondents all along the coast in California, Oregon, Washington,
and British Columbia, and before the week was out I began to receive
samples from them, and letters asking what was the matter with the hops.

It appeared that the attack of lice was simultaneous in Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia, extending over a distance coastwise of
more than five hundred miles, and even inland up the Skagit River, where
there was an isolated yard. This plague was like a clap of thunder out
of a clear sky to us.

I sent my second son, Fred Meeker, to London to learn the English
methods of fighting the pest and to import some spraying machinery. We
found to our cost, however, in the course of time, that the English
methods did not suit our different conditions; for while we could kill
the lice, we had to use so much spraying material on the dense foliage
that, in killing them, we virtually destroyed the hops. Instead of being
able to sell our hops at the top price of the market, we saw our product
fall to the foot of the list. The last crop I raised cost me eleven
cents a pound and sold for three under the hammer at sheriff's sale.

At that time I had advanced to my neighbors and others upon their hop
crops more than a hundred thousand dollars, which was lost. These people
simply could not pay, and I forgave the debt, taking no judgments
against them, and I have never regretted the action. All my
accumulations were swept away, and I quit the business--or, rather, the
business quit me.

After a long struggle with the hop plague, nearly all the hops were
plowed up and the land in the Puyallup valley and elsewhere was used for
dairy farming, fruit growing, and general crops. It is actually of a
higher value now than when it was bearing hops.

[Illustration: _United States Forest Service_

Going up the Chilkoot Pass.]

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

TRYING FOR A FORTUNE IN ALASKA

AFTER the failure of the hop business, I was left more or less at sea
for some years. I tried various other projects--among them the raising
of sugar beets. The country, we soon found, was not adapted to this
industry. Then I tried banking, likewise with little success. Finally I
decided to strike out for the mines of Alaska. This adventure, taken
when I was nearly three score and ten years of age, was full of exciting
experiences. Indeed, it left me richer only in experience.