St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-02-28
HAWAII, THE "PEARL OF THE
PACIFIC"
The Seventh of n Series ofLettersby John
X. Musick.
Downright, 1896, by Funk & Wagnails
Company, New York

COFFEE is sale to be the hope OF the
Hawaiian Islands, as it will bring
emigrants of a class greatly desired
Many OF the sugar plantations are
of no advantage to the country save
for the taxes they pay. One OF the
largest sugar plantations in Hawai-
is owned by non residents. The man
ager and every white man on TINS
plantation are citizens of California,
and every laborer is a Chinese or
Japanese. The plantation has It's
own store which all the employees
patronize, so that, year by year.
every dollar of the products OF this
plantation Of twenty thousand acres
is sent out Of the country to the
United States, to China, to Japan.
Sugar plantations, it is claimed
must be conducted by large corpora
tons; no small cane-grower haseVer
been found who could successfully
conduct the business. Bat with
coffee it is different. COFFEE is the
poor mans crop" From five to
ten acres may be cultivated by one
person, and a single crop has been
known to yield five hundred dollars
per acre.
Coffee lands would disgust even
Connecticut farmers. How it would
be possible to produce anything at
all from the stone and lava would
puzzle any one fully conversant with
the stony lands of New England, and
vet the best coffee trees are found
growing out of this same rock and
lava. A gentleman who has been
making some scientific Investigation
into coffee growing, says that lava
covered soil is the very best in which
to plant coffee. This gentleman has
a coffee plantation of forty acres,
with over one thousand trees to the
acre, and his trees yield two pounds
to the tree. The blight, and the
fungus which is the result of the
blight, has injured the trees to a con-
siderable extent, and at one time
threatened the destruction OF the in
dustry, but it was discovered that
by spraying young trees with resin
water and potash, the blight could
he destroyed. Then the ladybird
was introduced, and has proven a
destructive enemy to the blight.
There is something remarkable
about the fertility of Hawaiian soil.
Lava flows are soon covered with
terms, which are great fertilizers.
Then follows a dense growth OF for
est vines and thickets forming an
impenetrable jungle, so that one is
compelled to cut his way through.
Deep untathomable chasms and
caverns are quite abundant in Puma
Some of these caverns extend miles
underground with many branches
leading off from the main entrance
1t is not safe to venture into a cave
without a competent guide.
Mr.. Wright, of the Wilder Steam
ship Company, has Incorporated
coffee association with a paid-upcap
ital of $4,000 for the purpose o
opening up the coffee country ii
:. Puma. The company has purchased
three hundred acres of the best coffee
lands in Puma to be divided into ter
acre lots, and it is intended to induce
t industrious Americans DISMAL mean
! to emigrate 20 the islands and en-
gage IN coffee. growing. 1t is pro
( posed to give them ore plantation II
return for improving one for tn
company. The company itself vii
have one hundred acres in coffee
fifty in cocoa, ten to twenty in citro'
roots, and will utilize the balance c
its three hundred in hne apples an
guavas for jelly.
Kama, the rival of Puma, is abou
as barren and sterile a country as
e has ever been my lot to see. On
travels over miles and miles {
blackened rocks and lava flow
most of it in this portion otthe Islam
S being the rugged flow called by tn
natives ''aa On the first day W
crossed the flow Of 1887. This
black, but after a travel Of ten hour
y the color changes. The flow is olde
= and trees are found growing on /
Occasionally the dead branches {
e. monster ohia trees could be see
d sticking up from thelava which owe
4 whelmed 1t in past years, the to
a branches white and glistening lil
the bones of a skeleton.
< After we had passed the black Law
u, flow of 1887, which extends fc
> about ten miles beyond the Kahuk
Or Ranch, the trees become more abun'
n ant, and soon we were in the fores
is of fern and ohia trees. The road he
is through the lava, and straight
oi an air line railroad. Where the
n, US are trees the road is cut direct
through them, and il there are +
m trees the road is equally as discern
all bic by the levcling down of the Law
which is piled up in a wall on eth
ne side.
For hours at a time we wend,
our way up hill and down, the roa