The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-07-10
THE PACIFIC
Commercial
SATURDAY. JULY 10.
agriculture.
lwn..en for The 2. G. Aavsrt!serl

Written FIR the r. c. AdveTtzerJ
Since Reciprocity has become an established fact,
it IS as much an object Of speculation, as it was the
pivot about which the general interest revolyed be-
fore its accomplishment Every enc Of course looks
upon the treaty as the new cornerstone upon which
a renewed prosperity Of the country may be estab-
lished. Some are certain that capital seeking invest
ment will aow TO our shores; some look forward to
see new sugar plantations s~pringing up, wherever q
fertile coil invites; some speculate upon a rapidly en-
larging rice productions; while others look hopeful 10
a time when new, aud before this uninterrupted enter
prises will be undertaken, and when that most solid
Of all foundations of 8 country's prosperity shall be
laid-namely, " manufactures Of home raised raw
material at home But it appears to me that one
Of the principal questions, if not the principal one
upon which progress depends as much as upon the
treaty, is entirely overlooked. The time when the
treaty goes into operation nears with fast strides, aud
month after month slips by without any attempt or
discussion to increase labor. In my opinion (Which
1 offer to you in the auctioneer's phase " as is y the
treaty will have the effect to diminish labor more
rapidly than would have been the case without reci-
prosity. Chinese labor will withdraw from sugar
estates to seek an independent and profitable employ
ment in changing the thousands of waste kalO patches
into rice-felds, and in this way follow the more osn-
"a III 0A-OA NIANlAAu HSAN IL NAS "AA
of Hawaii nei, while native labor, whose maximum
is very nearly employed, will be SO sub-divided, that
a want of lahorers viii be felt on every plantation
l do not intend to enter into a discussion of the labor
question, as l am not only adhering to formerly ex-
pressed opinions but am still more confirmed in
them, that upon the kind of imported labor depends
the future general prosperity of the country, as much
and perhaps more than the treaty, and that while in
telligent white labor is a boon to the islands, the fur
Their introduction Of Asiatic laborers, however profit
able it may be for a while and for individuals, must
eventually prove ruinous to any country whose
boundaries and population are as limited as ours.
My object in writing this communication is merely to
suggest a plan to the intelligent planter or farmer,
whereby the same amount of labor, without increas-
ing either the number of laborere nor the labor it.
self, may advance the product from fifteen to twenty
per cent. by a better and more thorough cultivation
Of the soil, by putting the subsoil plow in general
use.
Experience has fully demonstrated the theory of
the subsoil pillow by the most astonishing results in
the cultivation Of wheat, and there can be no reason,
able doubt that this instrument would be equally
beneficial in sugar culture. The use of the subs6ilj
plow would have the following results: In higher
attitudes. such as Ulupalakua, Makswao, ETC., the
cane would ripen earlier; a drought OF six or seven
months duration would scarcely affect the cane; the
juice would be richer or heavier; the joints would be
longer; the cane itself larger, and the product bein-
creased from fifteen to twenty per cent, without any
extra expense Of labor.
1 believe it is the general habit to pillow the ground
intended for sugar-cane three times. In letting the
subsoil plow follow in the furrow of the second pillow,
the third blowing would be saved. There are two
kinds of subsoil plows, one for one horse, going 16
- % A. -
inches deep. In stony land, or ground intersected
with veins of lava, the one-horse pillow would be the
most advisable, while in ground clear of rocks the
two-horse pillow would of course be the most efficient.
The action of the subsoil pillow is two-fold. 1t not
only loosens the soil to an otherwise unattaiuable
depth, but the shape of the gold medal subsoil pillow is
so judiciOusly designed, that it admits a large amount
of atmosphere into the underground opened furrow,
and the beneficial results are not only derived from
the better and deeper till of TIE ground but as much
and perhaps more from the chemical action of the at
m~ospheric gases upon the formerly undisturbed
virgin soil.
There is no soil, be it ever SO easy Of cultivation
and considered loose. in which the use of the subsoil
rlow does not pay high interest. Most every farmer
haE at one time or another met with the experience,
when a soil that has been turned somewhat deeper
than usual produced a plentiful crop of weeds, of
which before perhaps not a specimen might be found
for miles around. That those seeds had lain for years
in the undisturbed soil safe from p~erishing, and had
terminated as soon as the lfe-giving gases of the at
mosphere acted upon the germ, is proof sufficient to
show that the soil, however loose to the pillow, was
still packed solid enough to exclude the atmosphere,
and to convince tie most skeptical that the admission
of the life-giving atmosphere by means of the sub
soil pillow, must be beneficial to the roots of growing
plants.
(Conciuded ne1t uCeek.1