ed for them at a regular brewery. The usual charge was
30s. per barrel for bitter ale, and 8s. or so for small beer. This tendency
to centralize brewing operations became more and more marked with each
succeeding decade. Thus during 1895-1905 the number of private brewers
declined from 17,041 to 9930. Of the private brewers still existing, about
four-fifths were in the class exempted from beer duty, _i.e._ farmers
occupying houses not exceeding L10 annual value who brew for their
labourers, and other persons occupying houses not exceeding L15 annual
value. The private houses subject to both beer and licence duty produced
less than 20,000 barrels annually. There are no official figures as to the
number of "cottage brewers," that is, occupiers of dwellings not exceeding
L8 annual value; but taking everything into consideration it is probable
that more than 99% of the beer produced in the United Kingdom is brewed by
public brewers (brewers for sale). The disappearance of the smaller public
brewers or their absorption by the larger concerns has gone hand-in-hand
with the gradual extinction of the private brewer. In the year 1894-1895
8863 licences were issued to brewers for sale, and by 1904-1905 this number
had been reduced to 5164. There are numerous reasons for these changes in
the constitution of the brewing industry, chief among them being (a) the
increasing difficulty, owing partly to licensing legislation and its
administration, and partly to the competition of the great breweries, of
obtaining an adequate outlet for retail sale in the shape of licensed
houses; and (b) the fact that brewing has continuously become a more
scientific and specialized industry, requiring costly and complicated plant
and expert manipulation. It is only by employing the most up-to-date
machinery and expert knowledge that the modern brewer can hope to produce
good beer in the short time which competition and high taxation, &c., have
forced upon him. Under these conditions the small brewer tends to
extinction, and the public are ultimately the gainers. The relatively
non-alcoholic, lightly hopped and bright modern beers, which the small
brewer has not the means of producing, are a great advance on the muddy,
highly hopped and alcoholized beverages to which our ancestors were
accustomed.

The brewing trade has reached vast proportions in the United Kingdom. The
maximum production was 37,090,986 barrels in 1900, and while there has been
a stead