The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-03-18
WEDNESDAY - MARCH 18th
COTTON PLANTING.

California is going into cotton plant
ing, and labor is being imported from
the Southern States to the Coast coun-
ties. The experiment was first made
in MERGED county; then it was tried
in Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties.
The result was uniformly favorable.
But difficulty arose regarding pick
ing the staple. White labor would
not do. The heat was intense, and
fever and ague burned and shook the
vitality out of white men. Chinese
were next tried, but "Cheap John
was a failure. His best work was
seventy-five pounds of cotton daily,
the average being about sixty pounds.
This, of course, was unsatisfactory,
and unless better work could be had,
there was no chance for cotton rails
ing in sub-tropical California.
Messrs. Haggin and Carr, of Kern
county, however, conceived the idea
of importing colored labor from Ten
nessee, with the happiest results. The
climate suited the negroes, and their
average daily picking was close upon
200 pounds. Indeed, that is the regular
output of colored labor in the cotton
fields of the Southern States. 1t has
been decided to bring several hundred
coIored people to Kern county under
contract, the average pay for adult
males being SIS a month. They
bring their wives and children with
them, and will become q valuable
permanent addition to the labor pop
ulation of Southern California, and
dispel the illusion heretofore prevail
ing that Chinese labor was indis-
pensable. AS showing the Importance
attached to this new industry in Cal
ifornia, the Chronicle says:
off we can succeed in growing long
staple cotton to any extent in this
State we have a resource upon which
we have never counted and which
may become of great value. The
net profit of the industry, even under
present disadvantages, is said to be
about s14 an acre, which is good
deal more than wheat growers can
realize"
Now, the point of all this eX-
traneous information is to impress
upon our own population the desira-
bility of resuming cotton planting.
No country in the world produces a
finer long-staple cotton than the
Hawaiian Islands. There is always
q market for it, and it always COM
mands fairly remunerative prices.
Why not resume it's cultivation ?
Labor is available, and it is not too
high priced. Moreover, capital and
labor may be invested in this indus
try, as indeed in all other industries,
without any dread of the "tax fiend,"
which is so much feared in Cali
fornia. Nowhere else is taxation
so low as in the Hawaiian Kingdom;
nowhere else, therefore, is there so
much encouragement to go into new
and diversified industries. Cotton
growing would not be a new industry,
however; it would be the revival OF
an old one.
Let US hope that this matter will
not be dismissed without thought.
And if it be honestly and thoroughly
thought out, action will follow. Those
well-disposed people who are solicit
Gus about the future of the native
race of these Islands would do well to
consider whether, in encouraging
them to cultivate cotton patches, they
are not doing the best possible thing
for them, morally as we'll as socially.
It would find them profitable employ
ment, keep them out of harms way,
and render them more amenable to
religious instruction. It would also
add to the permanent wealth of the
country by increasing our exports
and extending trade.