The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-08-14
Letter from X Onn.

Mr.. EpIroR In your communication dated July
18th. YOU speak of the Ramie plant, and ask why
not try cotton? Permit me to inform you ana your
readers that cotton has had a fair trial in kona- a
few wears since q young man came here from the
cotton-growing States of America, where he was
born and bred. This young man settled down In
North Kona, and planted about four acres OF iand
with the Sea Island cotton seed, and he says IL gre"
the best and quickest of any cotton he ever saw
and he also states that he never saw a heavier yleld'
but it had one fault, that was, the hollis did not open
well, so that it made it very difficult to PICK the
cotton. He thinks the cause was too much ram.
Now, to give you an idea of the weather in this part
of Kona: we have had about ten daysof sunshine SINCE
the 26th of April one time we had three days In
succession without rain, and much OF the ram mere
is accompanied with a cold, raw northwest wind, which
keeps the soil wet and cold, so that tender and deli
cate plants do not thrive so well as they would II
there was more sunshine.
Corn does well. One man informs me that he has
a few acres of corn planted, and it will average three
good ears to the stalk. That rather beats Ohio.
Another man says he has a small field of corn, in
which the stalks average fourteen feet high, and it Is
just beginning to tassel.
We have land in Kona adapted to the growth OF
almost anything-even cotton will do better a little
nearer the sea IMAM WHERE Inc young IL ooN
mentioned planted his field. Cotton has been grow
ing here for years, and there are now trees here
from twelve to fifteen feet high, and as much as
eighteen inches in circumference.
Z Fruit is very abundant throughout Kona this
| year. In most places the blight is not SO bad as it
has been for the last few years. The orange crop
has every prospect of being good this season and
the coffee crop will be better in North Kona this
year than it has been for many years before, although
the blight has not left by any means it shifts from
place to place. One man showed me n patch the
other day from which he picked over one thousand
pounds of good coffee last year. and this year the
blight took it and there will not be as much coffee in
humble servant ; the trees are completely covered
with blight, so that not only the berries but even the
leaves are dropping of.
Ramie 1 think will flourish in Kona, that is ON a
small scale. Labor is too scarce here to plant ex-
tensively. There are but few natives left in this
part of the island, and the few that are here are so
demoralized for want of proper religious instruction,
that they will steal their living rather than do a
days work. A neighbor Of mine told me a few days
ago, that the natives have not only stolen all his fowls
and his breadfruit, but have even broken to pieces a
number of his beehives, killed the bees, and stole the
honey. Religion handed out to natives on the end
of a long pole, does not appear to have much effect
North and South Kona, by any one who has got half
an eye. Yours, &C., BOURGEOIS.
Kona, Hawaii, August 4th, 1869.