The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-12-09
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
9.
Cotton Planting.

must again urge the cultivation of this staple, as
one Of the products best adapted 10 persons Of
limited means, and especially 10 the natives.
With simply i few acres of land leased or owned,
q plow and team, and a few implements, any
person can plant 4 crop which will be sure To
yield him $50 TO 800 per acre. OF course
this is not so profitable as n sugar plantation
but 1t must be remembered that the latter re-
quires an outlay of from $40 900 to 800, 600
before the first dollar of income is received, and
frequently requires the owners TO run into debt
and remain heavily involved for years. The
advantage of cotton growing is, that a native
or foreigner can raise on ten acres a crop worth
$500 TO 81 900 without any great expenditure
except has ocn labor. for one man can easily
take care OF that number Of acres. Perhaps
these remarks apply to rice with equal prospect
of success, but the latter requires taro land,
while the former grows on dry or pasture land.
The last number Of the Government Gdzette
has Il long rigmarole about the apathy u the
people in sustaining the Agricultural Society.
The truth about it is, that 10 long as the Agri-
cultural Society well managed by such men
as Lee, Marshall, Makee, Wood and Wyllie,
the public did sustain it literally and felt that
they received an ample reward for their gener-
Gus contributions. But when the name, credit
and funds of the Society served only to adorn pri-
vate gardens and residences, the public felt it 10
be useless, and very justly withheld its coopera-
ton. Had the funds Of the society been appro-
priated in premiums to encourage the cultiya-
ton of rice, wool, cotton, tapioca, rs also the
manufacture Of castor and other olls or had
the government offered Il liberal bonus or pre-
MUM for the largest amount Of any of these
articles raised by any native, as we suggested
some two years ago, does any one doubt that
we should now have natives annually clipping
wool by the thousand pounds, or raising rice
and cotton by the ten thousand pounds? Had
a premium of 81 900 been offered in 1864 or
1865 for the largest amount of paddy raised in
one year by any one ndtiUe, of not less than
%, 900 pounds or 81 900 to the grower of the
largest amount of wool or of ginned cotton of
not less than 10, 900 pounds, produced by any
nafire, can any one doubt that there would have
been a most healthy impetus given to each of
these Industries
Our ideas-governmentis as we'll as the SO
called Agricultural Society's-are altogether too
picdyuniSh in these matters. We can see thou
sands Of dollars lying idle in the treasury, while
thousands more are drawing interest out of it,
we can see foolish expenditures for many things,
but view with too little Importance the real
springs that actuate our social progress. We
should copy the example set by our neighbors
in Offering premiums. Tie Melbourne Parlia-
ment some two or three years ago offered a pre-
mium of 81 900 for the first 100 bales of cotton
raised in that colony. And last year the Legis-
lature of California, with that liberality which
,,-b+ p, ob,rontar;1a nOuar,pnanf offara6
q bounty of So, 900 for the first one hundred
acres of cotton, and another of So 900 for the
first 100 bales Of cotton of not less than three
hundred pounds each. As n result of this gener-
GUS fostering of its industry, more than a thou
sand acres of cotton have been planted in that
State this year, and as q necessary consequence
a cotton mill is being erected at Alameda to
consume it. \ little judicious help from the
State would have done fully as much in Hawaii
as it has in California.
a late California paper, in an interesting ar
ticle on cotton cultivation in that State, gives
some statistics relating to the cost and income
from cotton on the farm of Jose RubiO of Los
Angeles. He has fifty acres planted, and the
expense of preparing his ground, cost of seed
and cultivation for six months were $500, or
less than so per acre. He estimates the yield
at $50 pounds ginned cotton per acre, worth
in San Francisco, % cts. in gold per pound, or
S7,l25 for the crop on his fifty acres. Con-
sidering the small outlay for labor, this certainly
is an enormous profit, but any farmer here can
realize the same. The article further SAYS
d" 1t requires four months for cotton to attain its
growth. under the most favorable conditions. The
bloom comes out III the morning. and is developed
by noon. when ii Is pure white the next MORN
ing IL il q clear pink, and falls of by noon OF the
second day. The bloom of the Sea Island variety
ia yellow II first. The seed should be: thoroughly
wet with a brine made by sleeping stable manure
in salt and wafer the seeds are then dried with
ashes, lime or plaster. before planting. The rows
should be six feet apart. and the plants three feet.
This must depend on the quality of the soil and
probable size of the plants. The burrows should
b. Is straight and narrow as possible. rs the scraper
or horse can be run closer. diminishing the labor
of hoeing. The plant should be topped when it
attaine the height OF six feet. In the Mississippi
aud Red River plantations il frequently grows as
high a. ten feet. if not topped. From nine to ten
acres TO the hand are usually cultivated. besides
the provision crop. The yield of the short staple
is from 800 to $500 pounds of seed cotton per
acre. -Four hundred pounds of ginned cotton is
called 4 bale. and about 1900 pounds of seed cot
ton viii make u bale. Cotton has a tap-rOOt gencT-
ally two or three feet in length. and needs constant
moisture and continuous sunlight. The climate
that suits it best Is an atmosphere filled with moist
uTe. without clouds TO obscure the sunlight and a
soil that can seize, hold and appropriate the heavy
dews and fogs. Any good land with a saline at
m]osphere, will produce fine Sea Island cotton,
but without it no soil will"
Mr.. Nebeker, of the Mormon settlement al
Laie on this island, who has been engaged in
raising cotton, informs us that his land has pro-
duced about 1900 pounds of Sea Island seed cot
ton per acre this year, and as it is still bearing,