Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-01-25
The Sandwich Islands.

/. The 5000 whites in the Sandwich
Islands, says Mark Twain, handle all
the money aud carryon all the commerce
and sgriculture--and superintend the
religion. Americans are largely in the
majority. These whites are sugar
planters, merchants, whnle-ship officers,
and missionaries; The missionaries are
sdff5 tic most uf the other whites are
there, and these lhttsr are sorry the
missionaries don't migrate. The most
of the belt of sloping land that borders
the sea and rises toward the bases of
the mountains, is rich and fertile.
/ There are only 200, 600 acres of this pro-
ductiFo coil, but only think of its ca
! pabilities ! In Louisiana, 100000 aGres
of sugar land would only yield $1,000
4 tons of sugar per annum, and possibly
J not so much but in the Sandwich
Islands you could get at least 400, 900
tons Oil TT it: This is good, strong
statement, but it is true, nevertheless,
Two and half tons to the acre is a
common yield in the islands; three and
half tons is by no means unusual !;
five tons is frequent and / can name
the nan who took fifty tons of sugar
from seven acres of ground, one season.
This cane was on the mountain-side,
$500 feet above sea level, and it took it
three years to mature. Address your
inquiries te Capt Mckee, Island of
Maui, s. 1. Few plantations are stuck
up in the air like that, and so twelve
months is ample time for the maturing
of cane down there. And [ would like
to coll attention to two or three exceed
ingly noteworthy facts. For instance,
there you do not hurry up and cut your
cane when it blossoms, but you just let
it alone and cut it when. you choose
no harm will come of it. And you do
rot haze to keep an army of hands to
plant in the planting Season, grind in
the grinding season, and rush in fran
tically and cut down the crop when a
frost threatens. Not at all. There is
no hurry. You rem large plantation
with but fsw hands, because you plant
pretty much when you please, and you
cut your cane and grind it when it suits
your convenience. There is no frost,
and the longer the cane stands the bet
ter 1t grows. Sometimes-often, in fact
part of your gang are planting field,
another part are cutting the crop from
an adjoining field, and the rest are
grinding at the mill. You only plant
once in three years, and you take of
two ratoon crops without replanting.
You may keep oil taking off ratoon crops
about as long as you please, indeed
every year the bulk of the cane will be
smaller, but the juice will grow regu.
larly, denser, and richer, and SO you
are all right. | know of one lazy man
} who took off sixteen ratooh crops with,
out replanting 49,. ... ......
What fortunes those planters made
during our war, when sugar went NJ
into the twenties 1t had cost then
} about ten or eleven cents pound, de
hvered in San Francisco, and all charges
paid. Now if any one desires to know
why these planters would probably lik,
| to be under our flag, the answer is sim
pie We make them pay us duty o
four cents o pound on refined sugars a
present brokerage, freights, and hand
ling (two or three tines, costs three
cents more; rearing the cane, and max
| ing the sugar, is an item of five cent!
more-totai, II cents a pound, or within
} cent of it, anyhow. And to-day re
fined sugar is only worth about ~
cents (wholesale) in our markets. Prof
= none worth mentioning. But if W,
: were to annex the islands and do ava,
with that crushing duty of four cents
pound, some of those heavy planter
who can hardly keep their heads aboy'
water now, would clear $75, 900 yea
and upward. Two such years woulC
pay for their plantations, and all thei
stock and machinery.