The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-09-18
Some Doubts as to Results in
Higher Attitudes.
TOO MUCH RAIN A DRAWBACK
Cost of Clearing Land-The Soil Of Olaa Will
Grow Anything Satisfactory Results of
Experiments Near Hilo-Sunshine is NeceS-
sary to Get Abundant Crops in OIaa.

Ask five men in Olaa above seven
teen miles about the coffee prospects
and three of them will shrug their
shoulders and say: 1--WE can't tell
much about it; if the crop turns out
we'll we are all right, if not there will
be a lot of broken men in the district"
The other two will tell you they are
on the road to fortune and point over
their shoulders to a coffee patch to in
dicate the way.
AS a matter of fact coffee above II
miles is an experiment. Every author
ity has been consulted and out of the
twenty-five or thirty men who have
embarked in the enterprise more than
half the number have separate and dis
tinct ways of planting and handling.
A majority of the growers will estab-
lish a nursery as soon as sufficient
land has been cleared, others consider
it a waste of labor and plant direct.
Two years from now the public will
be able to judge who made the right
guess.
Whether the men who have gone
there to cast their lots are successful
or not they are entitled to credit and
monuments for their abiding faith in
a section of country which, to one who
is not familiar with the conditions
necessary to growing coffee, is dismal
beyond expression when it rains. And
;,,c Lot Io hof do,
prevails in any locality where the av-
erage yearly rainfall is 200 inches.
Where land is at all times full of mois-
ture anything will grow and this in
cludes weeds, the bette noir to coffee
plantation owing to the fact that it
costs money to keep a tract free from
them.
If you ask the owner of a plantation
in Olaa to permit you to go over his
plantation his answer will begin with
an anxious gaze at the bottoms of your
trousers and the space between the
soles and uppers of your shoes. If he
detects the slightest trace of seeds on
your shoes or clothing he will hand you
a whisk broom or shoe brush and tell
you to use them. Every seed you
carry into his plantation means ex-
pense to him in eradicating weeds
after the seeds have taken root.
AS an owner or overseer leads the
way between or across the rows of
trees his eye is keen on the lookout for
some stray thing that pokes it's way up
through the earth. When found he
pulls it, shakes the earth from the
roots and puts the weed into his pock-
et On the return trip he takes you
on another course leading past little
spot grown up with the pests. Here
he stops and deposits those he has
found, and when after a week or a
month the hole is filed with weeds, it
is covered with earth and their growth
killed.
| clearing the virgin forest varies, ac-
cording to the condition of the land
| from thirty to fifty dollars an acre, add
! to this the cost of caring for the trees
|
ers," topping and pruning, and it viii
require a heavy crop to make the in
vestment profitable.
If you suggest to grower that the
soil is too constantly moist to brinE
forth a good crop he will meet youl
suggestion by saying that it will pro
ceduuce luxurient growth of anything
else, consequently it must produce
coffee. But few of the people will den!
| that the soil becomes sour through
constant rainfalls and not one will yol
find, but will admit that it might b.
better if the land was exposed to ;
greater amount of sun.
At Mason's plantation, where ther'
are $50 of acres already planted tn
coffee looks we'll and the chances o