The evil effects of this policy must have become manifest almost instantaneously for as early as 1713 Governor Gordon deplores the decadence of brewing and the almost total discontinuance of the cultivation of hops and barley. After various futile experiments to remedy the evil the lawmakers in 1722 imposed a duty upon molasses, primarily to discourage the manufacture of rum, and enacted several laws designed to encourage the brewing of beer made of grain (not necessarily barley) and of hops. One of the principal inducements was the entire separation of the sale of beer from the liquor traffic and the exaction of a very low license-fee from the keepers of ale-houses. The use in brewing of molasses, sugar or honey was absolutely forbidden, and both the brewers and the brewing tavern-keepers were compelled to give security ($500.00) for the faithful observance of the provisions of the act relating to permissible materials. The law distinctly sets forth that one of its objects is to induce “the brewers to take special care to bring their beer and ale to the goodness and perfection which the same was formerly brought to, that so the reputation which then was obtained and is since lost, may be retrieved.” The same law directs that the proper officers in fixing the prices of commodities “shall allow higher prices than common to be taken for such beer and ale as shall excel in quality.” Economically considered, the laws fixing the price as well as the quality of the commodity, frequently without regard to cost of raw material and labor and almost always without due consideration of the condition of crops and the market, was a serious error and the very text of the quoted Act seems to indicate that the lawmakers had begun to understand the far-reaching effect of this blunder. One other object of the law, as stated therein, was to encourage the cultivation of hops and of wheat and barley. We know that Pennsylvania ultimately became an important grain-growing country, but we also know that partly as a result of such unwise legislation as has already been referred to, the surplus grain found its way into distilleries. Subsequent legislation, such as the act forbidding the sale of liquors, _excepting beer_, to iron-workers within two miles of a foundry, or the one permitting only the sale of beer and cider on the muster-fields of the militia, had little effect upon the drinking habits of the people, in many parts of the colony. In 1733 the Pennsylvania _Gazette_, dilating upon this condition of things, stated that Philadelphia women “otherwise discreet, instead of contenting themselves with one good draught of beer in the morning, take two or three drams, by which their appetite for wholesome food is destroyed.”