The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1877-01-27

"SAvE the pennies, and the pounds viii take
care of themselves is an old saw, whose teeth
have been fled by almost every grandmother in
the hearing Of every little one that nestled in
the good old lady's lap cIutching tightly in Its
fat hand the penny presented to 1t and arguing
the purchase of ever 50 many candies and cakes
"Save the pennies, say we also, looking at our
readers through our g~randmotherly spectacies;
the dollars viii take care OF themselves. we
refer to the pennies and dollars which q KIND
Providence has put within our reach IN the
manifold resources os these islands. Dollars IN
sugar and rice and wool, are 50 plainly IN view,
that almost every one who thinks Of going into
an agricultural pursuit looks forward 10 the
accumulation of sugar by the hundreds of tons,
and 10 sew his moneybags with
double thread, never once looking at the pennies
that glisten neglected and unnoticed In the dirt
by the wayside, but which if gathered would
soon grow into dollars.
Our islands are rich in resources that have
lain for years neglected, while sugar alone has
ridden on the topmost wave Of Hawaiian pro-
gress. For the present we will mention but one
out of many articles, the growth and export of
which is ere-long destined to figure among our
industries. We can scarcely travel q mile on
any country road on these islands, be it on a
mountain side, through a valley, over a plain, or a
lava flow, or cross fertile lands, without meeting
in some waste place, in some hollow or on some
stone-beap with the castor oil plant, (Ricinus
%cOmmunis, or Palma Christi) growing luxuri-
antly. In other countries, where the Palma
Christi is an annual, it is cultivated with much
labor but with good profit; here, a genial
climate has made the plant perennial, yielding
its seed abundantly and without cultivation
twice a year-but we suffer it to rot on the
ground.
A few years ago, our townsman Mr.. g. G.
Mclean, imported machinery and a hydraulic
press for the manufacture of castor oil, pur-
chasing the seed from the natives, at 50 per
hundred pounds. A superior lubricating oil was
made, which was used to advantage on the
engine of the steamer Kilauea and elsewhere.
But as a remarkable sign of the times, we learn
that latterly neither natives nor Chinese can be
found to gather the seed at that price-a crop
that has cost them nothing to cultivate and only
requires the trouble of gathering-and the manu-
facture is brought to a stand still. Can any
one point to another spot on the civilized globe
where the poor people are SO independent as
here? They can reap where they have not sOwn,
but in truth they are too indolent to do SO.
In some localities where the plants are scarce,
the work of gathering will of course be slow,
but where plants are plentiful as is often the
case, the gathering of a hundred weight IN q
day should be an easy task. BY exposing the
capsules a few hours to the sun they open, and
the only labor remaining is to put the beans into
bags. The local demand would no doubt be soon
supplied, were any enterprising persons to make
a business of raising castor beans; but the
market of San Francisco is open, where they
are quoted scarce at So, and they would go
in duty free.