The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-02-26
HAWAII, THE PEARL OF
THE PACIFIC"
The Seventh of Series oil Letters by John
r. Musick.
AUTHOR OF "THE COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL
NOVELS, 'BRoTHRR AGAINST BROTHER,
ETo., ETC.
Copyright, 1896, by FUNK wAeNAILs COMPANY,
New York;
The Two Great Coffee Growing
DistriCts.-HOW Coffee is
Crown

GROWN
Coffee is said to be the hope OF the
Hawaiian Islands, as it will bring emil
grants of class greatly desired. Many
of the sugar plantations are of no advant-
age to the country save for the taxes they
pay. One of the largest sugar plantations
in Hawaii is owned by non-residents. The
manager and every white man on this
plantation are citizens of California, and
every laborer is a Chinese or Japanese.
! The plantation has its own store which
all the employees patronize, so that, year
by year, every dollar of the products oil
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 corporations; no
small cane.grower has ever been found
who could successfully conduct the bust
ness. But with coffee it is different
Coffee is the ''poor mans crop. From
five to ten acres may be cultivated by one
person, and single crop has been known
to yield We hundred dollars per acre.
Coffee lands would disgust even Con-
necticut farmers. How it would be posi-
BILE to produce anything at all from the
stone and lava, would puzzle any one
fully conversant with the stony lands Of
New England, and yet 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-cover-
ed soil is the very best in which to plant
coffee. This gentleman has coffee plan
tation OF forty acres, with over one thou
sand 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 consider
able extent, and at one time threatened
| the destruction of the industry, but it was
discovered that by spraying young trees
| with resin water and potash, the blight
could be destroyed. Then the ladybrd
was introduced, and has proven destruc,
tive enemy to the blight.
There is great rivalry between the Puma
and Kama districts In coffee-growing. The
latter is the older district, and claims to
produce q superior article ana more to the
acre. On the other hand Puma coffee
growers claim better soil than Kama, and
the work, so far as they have gone, is
certainly promising. Puma district is, to
a great extent, wild, UNEMPLOYED region
on the great island OF Hawaii, and has but
two thousand inhabitants, most of whom
are natives living in their aboriginal style
| 10 grass huls. The district is capable Of
supporting in comfort and prosperity one
hundred thousand people, as it has been
| discovered that 10 these Islands one acre
of good land will support eight people.
| The Puma district is about ten miles wide
and fifty long, so one can understand what
an enormous population it is capable OF
sustaining. Puma, like most of Hawaii,
Is very rocky and sterile. The northern
part ia covered with dense lsuhala for
est, aud is very thinly inhabited The
| district is covered with ancient lava flows.
The only flow OF recent date is that OF
1910, which flowed under ground for
many miles, and then burst forth in the
woods and went down TO the sea, over
whelmiDg small village in its course. In
the course Of this flow may be found lava
vases and trees made by the hot tide rush
ing like an avalanche down the mountain
side, and striking tree with such force
as To splash the molten lava up one side
sometimes to the height of hundred feet,
where 1t cooled and hardened, and, after
the wood burned out in the centre, 1t left
a lava tree.
There Is something remarkable about
the fertility of Hawaiian soil. Lava flows
are soon covered with ferns, which are
great fertilizers. Then follows a dense
growth of forest vines and thickets form
ing an impenetrable jungle, so that one is
compelled TO cut his way through.
Deep unfsthomable chasms and caverns
are quite abundant ia Puma. Some of
these caverns extend miles underground
with many branches leading off from the
main entrance. 1t is not safe to venture
into cave without competent guide.
Mr.. Wright, Of the Wilder Steamship
Company, has Incorporated a coffee ASSOC
citation with a paidup capital OF $4,000,
for the purpose OF opening up the coffee
| country in Puma. The company has pur-
chased three hundred acres OF the best
coffee lands in Puma, TO be divided into
ten acre lots, and II is intended to induce
industrious Americans of small means to
emigrate to the islands and engage in
coffee growing. 1t is proposed TO give
them one plantation In return for improv-
ing one for the company. The company
itself will have one hundred acres in cot
fee, fifty In cocoa, ten to twenty in citron
roots, and will utilize the balance of its
three hundred in fine apples and guavas
for jelly.
Kama, the rival of Puma, is about as
barren and sterile country as it has ever
been my lot TO see One travels over
miles and miles of blackened rocks and
lava flow, most OF 1t In this portion of the
Island being the rugged flow called by the
| the natives "aa." On the first day we
crossed the flow of 1887. This is black,
but after travel of ten hours, the color
changes. The flow is older, and trees are
found growing on 1t. Occasionally the
dead branches OF monster ohia trees could
be seen sticking up from the lava which
overwhelmed 1t in past years, the top
branches white and glstening like the
bones OF a skeleton.
After we had passed the black lava flow
of 1887, which extends for about ten
miles beyond Inc hahuka Ranch, the trees
became more abundant, and soon we were
in forests Of ferns and ohia trees. The
road here is through the lava, and straight
as an air line railroad. Where there are
trees the road is cut directly through
| them, and II there are no trees the road is
equally discernable by the leveing down
of the lava, which is piled up 10 wall on
either side.
For hours at time we wendell our way
up hill and down, the roadbed often
choked with great stones over which the
tired horses could hardly step. Whenever
there was a smooth bit of road, the guide
uttered a shout: "Wic-ke, wic-ke ~ and
put the horses at a gallop. This was only
for short time, however, for there is not
a strip of good road fifty yards 10 length
in all kaua, after you have left the sugar
plantations.