This slight digression from our subject, although showing how much mystery has at all times clouded the origin and the originator of beer, may not be regarded by our readers as a sufficient excuse for our inability to supply the needed information; but, much as we may regret this, we cannot help it. According to the testimony of the late Mr. Frederick Lauer, who himself brewed lager-beer in 1844, the honor of having first brewed the famous drink of to-day, belongs to one Wagner, of whom it is said, that, shortly after his arrival in America, in 1842, he set up a lager-beer brewery in a small building situated in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Lauer enjoyed the reputation of a walking encyclopedia of American brewing; as a matter of fact, he took a prominent part in organizing the National Brewers’ Association and bringing about concerted action by the brewers in all matters relating to their trade, and kept himself well posted in all that concerned his colleagues. In 1885, a few years after his demise, the United States Brewers’ Association erected a monument to his memory in a public square of Reading, Pa., the city in which he had spent the greater part of his life. If lager-beer had been introduced before the date here given, Lauer certainly would have known it. We may take it for granted, then, on Lauer’s authority, that lager-beer was introduced in 1842. Within six years from that date, German immigration began to assume unprecedented proportions; the hospitable shores of our country became the refuge of a great number of highly educated men, of skilled artisans and comparatively well-to-do tradesmen. The total foreign population increased from 1850 to 1860 at the rate of ninety per cent., and we may infer from the following figures to what extent this great influx of beer-drinkers accelerated the growth of brewing, and helped to increase the production of hops and barley: Production Production Number Value of Population of Hops of Barley of Malt Pounds Bushels Brewers Liquors 1850—23,191,876 3,497,029 5,167,015 431 $5,728,568 1860—31,443,321 10,991,996 15,825,890 1,269 21,310,933