The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1882-07-27

FRoM TIE Clcuner, q newspaper
published at Kingston, jamaica, we
copy the following article entitled
" Sugar in the Sandwich Islands," +"
which we doubt not will be read with
interest:
The marvellous prosperity of the
sugar industry of the Sandwich
Islands in the course of few years,
rs the result of the treaty, is enough
to set the teeth of the jamaica
planter en- edge with envy. The
story of the development of cane
cultivation there has also elements of
the romantic in it Not loug ago Il
German Claus Spreckels, rented what
WAS little better than lava bed,
situated ut the foot of an extinct
volcano. lie took up q tract of
10000 acres of volcanic cinder.
ashes and lava, for fifty years at 10
cents an acre, went quietly to work
in putting vegetable soil into this
bed and in watering it, and then
planted sugar cane. The enterprise
succeeded. To-day Spreckels has
u noble fortune, to the building
up of which the Reciprocity Treaty
has contributed in no small degree.
1t may be readily supposed that
the rich lands and the tempting
terms of the Treaty led many per-
sons TO engage in sugar planting in
the Sandwich Islands, and such was
actually the case, several of the
planters overreaching themselves in
their anxiety to become rich. The
following statement was made re-
Gently in the New York Hercd on
the subject:
The fertility of tho soil as regards
sugar yield in the thirty Five years during
which canes have been cultivated has
also been The subject of much tluctua.
tion of opinion. DIR. Wood rated it at
5000 pounds per acre. Ii, A. p, Carter in
1919 rated ii at 1900 pounds the acre. San
guine and hope inspired planters even
as late as 1850 have rated it at 5000
pounds per acre, while United States
newspapers inimical to the treaty have
rated il at 5000 pounds per acre. A cal.
culation based upon the returns OF 1885,
n calculation carefully and fairly made
Il yield of Gj,5S4000 pounds of
sugar to 23,334 acres cropped or II triile
over one and half (shortl tons per acre
An average of 1000 pounds per acre
would probably represent fully the aver.
age fertility of Hawaiian soil This
with other sugar producing
countric, as follows, This table is taken
from the pamphlet issued by the Queens.
lander, 1902 pounds; Dcmcrara, 4,45O
pounds; Louisiana, 1,200 pounds; Maur.
titus, 10000 pounds; Philippine Islands,
:, ,2iO pounds; Java, 1880 pounds. Under
the stimulus of the treaty the Hawaiian
plantations have been about doubled
In 1919 there was thirty two of them. In
the present year (1SS2) there are tifty-onc
plantations equipped with mills, nine
custom mills and twenty-five plantations
cooperative with mills. In other words
there are now sixty plantations, as
against thirty-two in 1915. The acre.
age under cultivation has more than
doubled, for every old and new planter
has stretched himself to the full extent
Of his cash and credit. But results, thus
far, have not borne out the planters anti
ripations, The furorc for engaging in
sugar has subsidized, The extensive and,
in many Instances fatal losses have
the people, so that within three
years no new plantations have been
started, Available lands, those on which
the plough may be started without pre-
sious application of capital to make
them accessible or hiring on irrigating
water, have been scarce,
The Importance Of the industry
may be learned from the fact that
in 1877 the export of sugar reached
5,575,00O lhs., was nearly four
times us much in 1881, and is esti-
mated at 120,000,O00 lb. for the
present year. 1t is said that the
'aw sugar made there is so good that
At first the Custom House authorities
,f the United States refused to adj
nit it free, and they suspected it
lad undergone some refining pro-
,ess,
The chief reason urged for con-
innance of the treaty is that it has
5iven a good opportunity to Amer