The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1856-08-07

Of DIR. w ssa, HiiiebranJ, before rae r. II.
Agricultural Society.

lConciu1ed.l

III OES . y E1p OtAOE AAC ASs RS
AgrfcEItlraI Society.
[Conciuded.l
SO far, Gentlemen, I have entertained you at great length Of
time with the disastrous influence of civilization upon climate
and nature at large. But where, win You ask, is the application
day, where agriculture is just beginning to impress upon it the
stamp of refinement and establishment, which you yourself be
validity of your objection. In that case my answer is this if
there are no faults aud wrong doings ofmen that need correcting,
it is the shortcomings of mature, which L Should wish to see as
sisted and hurried on. To speak more plainly, the gist OF my
dense vegetation is necessary to secure the interests of agricul-
ture on a permanent basis, that in other countries this condition
existed but has feen destroyed by man, but that our country has
not reached a sufficiently advanced age wherein nature might
action and reaction on each other, of earth aud atmosphere.
sounded over the great expanse of land and water, the ocean
quietly rolled it, billoEs over the spot where now our t Ares sis1,
ris and Lepflodenlrons accumulated in the bottom-lands OF
again receding, left their debris covered with a deposit thus
again forming the ground-aoor for a new vegetation, only to be
badly far anterior TO the birth of our islands, which, besides the
sent to the gee1ogist but formations of the latest epoch; there are
even reasons to suppose, that organic life began here a long time
considerable advance in other parts of the globe. Yet our islands
have a creation OF their own, even peculiarly their own, from
spot. as it became inhabitable for organised 1eings. soon the
M Mar5 si Iemqqe na along 4g from r4mh1 ansa nI ae Cons a ssEs ass.s egio srnr .h e
almost microscopical spores of cryptogamous plants and seeds
of plants With this, kind of seed in common with neiglboring
from them y birds dropped a small amylaceous or grass seed,
entangled in their feathers elsewhere, and last Of all came man,
DlinoLlS WIKI IlEn the means OF his Su>tcu+NCt, I1ODGtDiS II
banana and b~readfruit. But man, after having been deposited
here was cut off from his anterior home, ana therefore with, or
t mi ;sols a+e " graga I "a tha fur : m NJ AZ ~ @stabIisbed = bi@b.
way on which what lived or breatled in distant regions, might
wend its way hitler. What to accomplish, nature alone in her
slow, but safe way, would have required hundreds of years, the
intellectual analysing, and combining power Of man, penetrat-
ing, and initiating her own laws, may do in as many decen-
NUNS, not indeed on such a gigantic scale as nature is wont to
doit for with all his appiicatiol and energy his works viii ever
remain dwarGsh when comIered with her immense powers; but
on a small scene of action, When his works are favored by the
forces of nature, he can make a great impression Oh the physkg-
Monty of a country
Wherever the white man goes. Ike carries with him his accus-
toned means Of sustenance; the cereals follow him like his
weeds whose favored habitat is with them. Culinary vegetables,
fruit trees, ornamental plants follow next, a greatmany of which
to his steps, as it were, as an indispensable accessory, although
sibiity in the seed, account for it. Thus the plantain. pfrntayo
mGor, Invariably sprung up where the settler in North Amsrica
raised his cottage. The Indians still call it the white MANS foot
step. 1t has followed him here. Another plant growing around
you, the thorn apple, st James weel, Datara Stramon, orig
inally an East Indian plant, spread from there with the migration
of the Gypsies over Asia and Europe; from Europe the white
man carried it to America, Africa, and Australia. During the
great war Inoyernents Of 1911 and 10 it was observed, that a
siberian CortsPernpm sprung up wherever the Cossacks had
onists to SIsme eop linen T55es se ye eeta IL mir ton Fl fe,low-
agencies in increasing the vegetable stock of a new country; but
they will fall short of the vast auxiliary which can be offered to
youthful nature by the thinking mind of man, when he takes
the light of science as a guide to investigate the true wants OF
the country, and directs her energy in conformity with the or
This, my friends, let us erdeavor to make our great aim on
these virgin Islands where we have met together from so many
parts ofthe world. to be formed into a homogeneous community.
NNH~ W. oASaCSo OOOI0 W Us ALOI1 the GEllE COl1InflJi00S 81
elements, II which our rising state recruits Itself. The matured
experience and knowledge of many nations is centered in your
society Sou are situated on the central station of important
cominerriai lines, have direct communication with four contl-
nents and many island groups The great variety Of your eli
mate permits you to appropriate TO yourselves most productions
of warm and temperate zones. Insuficiency of perrenrialvegeta
ton is the only true cause which renders our Islands 50 far
inferior ia their resources to the islands Of the East-and West
Indies. Take a survey of the different districts of our group
those you viii find the most productive which are in the neigh
borhood OF, OF surrounded by wooded mountains, as Iflo and
hona in Hawaii, and Hanalei in Kauai. Go to work then, To
fiji up the lacunas left yet by nature! Cover the dTeary dark
Of our naked hills with the fresh yeriure of shrub ard tree. In
ter1ningle the lofty pine and cedar with the graceful acacia, the
stately eucaly plus, the broad shaded tamarind and cenba
Between them rear the towering teak tree of India, and the
gigantic sequora of California, to yield IN times 10 come the
solid timber for your nascent shipping. The dark foliage of
the orange and citron, serving as foil to their golden fruit, must
cluster round the cool moss-inlaid springs, which viii soon bub-
BILE forth as if struck by Moses rod, from every n9ak and cor
I ner between rocks. and under the fern tree. to ante in rivuIets
and streams, which encased in a framework of bamboo cane and
lanes, win pour out of every valley, and cover with fertility the
now arid ana sterile plains. Then these viii swell, as if Pando-
ras horn were eTnptied over them, with the turgid cane, the
fragrant coffee, the speckled cotton and broadIeayed cacao,
shelter and food to those lovely sonssters whom you are so arx-
ious to admit into your society but who certainly Will shun it,
unless You build them convenient houses, and plant them food
of their liking. Thus your islands looming over the distant
full arecas and stately coryphfenas, viii indeed appear to the
approaching stranger, like a cluster of GEMS in the wide ocean,
bidding fair to realise the fanciful dreams Of his youth
But before all let us not neglect the vegetable treasures airea-
dy accumulated by natures own unai3ed effort. Bat here we
are suddenly arrested in our fanciful excursion Dy g. sad reaec-
ton. Haze we really only the grateful task to assist nature, to
rear into vigorous manhood the tender child intruste1 y our
care? Alas, our civilization only dates of yesterday, and already
nature bleeds from many wounds inflicted by the cupidity and
reckless selishness of man. Where are the forests of sandal
trees, which used to she'd a halo of fragrance around the mere
name of the Hawaiian Islands? 4 vast source of wealth has
been dried up, a rich mine of gold whose yield ought to have