The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-05-11
AN AGRICULTURAL SoCIETYs OBJECTS

EDITOR BuLLETIN:-W l be-
gan my crusade, not against the
men, but against the drifting and
suicidal tendencies of the Royal Ha-
waiian Agricultural Society," cru
SADIE which the A0Ucrtise'', with that
liberality of views for which it is so
we'll known, tried to stifle up-I
knew l had the approval of many
persons interested in agriculture.
One unknown "Farmer" has even
kindly given me unexpected and
friendly assistance in the BULLETIN,
and have been pleased to see him
express several views absolutely
identical to those which l had formu-
lated myself. After stating that it
must undoubtedly be a difficult
though not impossible thing to keep
up living and working agricultural
association in country like our
Islands, l said that l was induced to
believe that one of the causes of the
decadcnce-if such it can be called
of the present Agricultural So
ciety, is that it lacked, that life
giving element, indispensable for
keeping up the public interest in it,
viz: frequent intercourse between
members, by personal meetings or
through written communications;
and that it had failed in its duties
by neglecting the purely agricultu-
raj and theoretical work. 1t would
be indeed q decided error to suppose
that yearly shows are all that is to
be expected from an agricultural
association, and that after one show,
it's mission is over till next one. You
see how l agreed with "Farmer"
and 1 continued by saying that, on
the contrary, unless instituted solely
for the furtherance of the interests
of some exhibitors, the real object
of true agricultural society is to
be the means of bringing in contact
all the people interested in agricul-
tural pursuits, not at long intervals,
but as often as possible. 1t must
therefore aim at inducing discussion
among its members-and even the
public generally-and at awakening
a healthy desire of communicating
their own experience and of learn
ing from others, such being, l be-
lieve, one of the objects of the
Planters Association. And, fur
ther, special duty of an agricultu-
raj organization is to help and
reach even those who are far away,
and cannot attend to meetings or
oral discussions, and to render avail
able for them all the information
that can be gathered from all sides,
from home experience as well as
from foreign knowledge. And all
this is exactly what the present So.
ciety has failed even to try to do.
Here the 1dvertiser-in perfect con-
sistency with that well-known policy
of trying to prove that, everything
here being perfect, atdoes not need
improvement from any foreign ex'
amples-said that sit is idle to spen6
time in discussing something which
exists elsewhere, but does not exist
here" They might as well say thai
as tobacco, ramie, flowers for per-
fumery, etc., grow elsewhere but
not here, it is idle to attempt to in
troduce them here. But, as fortu
nately that paper is alone of tha
sentiment, | know / shall not b'
blamed for illustrating my views
about what agricultural societies
ought to do, by referring topersona
experience not because it is personal
but because it contains striking
argument on the value of shows.
A MARQUES.
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