The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-11-12


| that the business of cultivating coffee
| mas now come TO these islands to stay
| 1t Is not new here. More or less cof-
Zee has been exported for 80 years
! For 20 years past King Sugar has
monopoliZed all the capital and brains
! OF the country, and other exports fell
! into neglect. There was a leading
| cause for encouragement about coffee
! In the attack of several destructive
forms of insect blight various species
! of aphis and coccus. Most OF the old
| coffee plantations succumbed to these
! enemies. A deliverer from these evils
| has lately appeared in the person of
| Prof. Koebele, who rescued the dying
citrus groves of California from the
devastating "cottony-cushion scale" by
means of his pretty red-dotted lady
bird, the Vedalia cardinals. KoebeIe
has been for some years on salary from
this Government, and has found in
Australia and elsewhere the precise
lady bird antidotes wanted for every
individual variety of scale and aphis
infesting our trees of every sort Now
every coffee plantation is kept thor
oughly clean and pure from blights.
This is a boon of immense value. IL
appears to insure complete success for
the present resumption Of coffee Gull
ture.
The class of lands suitable for cof-
fee culture, that is, moist, cool, free
from driving winds and fertile, is of
great extent on the large island of
Hawaii. The amount of accessible
land of this sort will only be limited
by lack of roads. The Government has
entered upon an active course of con
struction of first-class macadam roads,
in order to open such lands to settle
ment. They can be supplied as fast as
they are at present likely to be wanted
There are at least SOC, 900 acres of good
coffee lands on Hawaii, probably 10
times as much as on the smaller is
lands. The very best OF these lands
now available are those in the up
lands of Kona, which has given it's
name to our choicest coffee. Perhaps
not inferior in quality will be the cof-
fee raised in the web forests along the
new Volcano road in the district of
Olaa. Neighboring districts in Puma
are now being opened by new roads.
FOR SMALL FARMERS.
On this island of Oahu are tracts of
small extent where coffee fiourishes.
In sufficiently moist localities the trade
winds generally drive too steadily. A
fine plantation of go acres is now be-
ginning to bear abundantly in Wal
amaze under the lee of high mountain,
and 1 900 feet up it's slope. Other
small plantations are starting in the
same district. For the ordinary farm
er, who raises most of his household
supplies. coffee will abundantly furnish
his needed cash resources. Ten acres
will be a little fortune to such set
tier, and all he can handle without
great outlay for hired labor Six acres
of coffee trees will be as much as he
and his family can. keep in order, pick
and prepare for market. The other
four acres will keep his COWS, pigs and
poultry, and furnish garden supplies
for the household. From the six acres
the gross yield will be from $500 to
81 900 per annum. Most of the labor
after planting is very light, well suit
ed to women and children.
For his food, in a district moist
enough for coffee, the settler can al
ways depend on an abundant yield OF
corn, sweet potatoes, tara, squashes,
poultry, pork and dairy products, with
more or less beef and mutton. Irish
potatoes do well only on the higher
upIands, and together with wheat
flour, will have to be imported from
the Pacific Coast. Cabbages, onions,
string-beans, tomatoes, beets, turnips,
thrive in gardens everywhere.
1t seems quite safe to say that coffee
will always be the export product most
available for the independent small
farmer in Hawaii. 1t is easily pro-
duced, by reasonable skill and care,
and a comparatively sure crop. The
yield on a small space is highly re-
munerative. For a large area the
amount of light manual labor needed
is a drawback. With from three TO
five acres most of the picking and weed
dren of the settler. Being worth 20
cents a pound, the cost Of transporta-
ton is a small percentage. Compared
with the toll and hardship of a set
tiers life in Dakota or Washington,
the labor of farmer in Kona or Oiaa
is light and easy, and his bodily COM
fort great Nowhere else can sooner
or more easily be created a home,
charming outside with trees and flow
ers or pleasant within with apartments
open to the balmy air. On the coffee
upIands the nights are invariably cool,
often needing stove warmth in the
evening. Mosquitoes are apt to give
trouble at night; never in daytime.
But we sleep under MEETINGS. Then we
get used to the little wretches and do
not mind them.
Three hundred thousand acres of