Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1896-02-26
Special Correspondence Heralda Tribune
HAWAII, THE "PEARL OF
THE PACIFIC"
The Two Great Coffee Growing Dis.
tricts-.HOw Coffee Is Grown.
Copyright, 1896, by Funk 4 wagnalls Com
pany, New York.

Coffee is said to be the hope of the Ha-
waiian Islands, as twill bring emigrants
of 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-resldents. The
manager and every white man on this
plantation are citizens Of California, and
every laborer is Chinese or Japanese.
The plantation has its 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 operations; 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 five hundred dollars per
acre.
Coffee lands would disgust even Con-
necticut farmers. How it would be pos
sible 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 investiga.
tion into coffee growing, says that lava
covered soil is the very best in which to
plant coffee. This gentleman has cof-
fee 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 re-
suit OF the blight, has injured the trees
to a considerable extent, and at one time
threatenedlthe destruction of the indus
try, but IT was discovered that by spray
ing young trees with resin water and
potash, the blight could be destroyed.
Then the iadybird was introduced, and
has proven destructive enemy to the
blight
There is great rivalry between the
Puna and Kama districts in coffee grow
ing. The latter is the older district, and
claims to produce superior article and
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 great extent, o wild un-
explored region ON the great island of
Hawaii, and has but two thousand in
habitants, most of whom are natives
living in their aboriginal style in grass
huts. The district is capable of support
ing in comfort and prosperity one hun
dred thousand people, as it has been dis
covered that in these Islands one acre Of
good land will support eight people. The
Puna district is about ten miles wide and
hfty long, so one can understand what
an enormous population it is capable Of
sustaining. Puma, like most of Hawaii,
is very rocky and steril. The northern
part is covered with dense lauhala
forest, and is very thinly Inhabited.
This 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, overwhelming small village in
its course. In the course of this flow
may be found lava vases and trees made
by the hot tide rushing like an avalanche
down the mountain side, and striking a
tree with such force as to splash the
molten lava up one side, sometimes to
the height of a hundred feet, where it
cooled and hardened, and, after the wood
burned out in the center, left a lava tree.
There is something remarkable about
the fertility of Hawaiian SOIL Lava
flows are soon covered with ferns, which
are great fertilizer. Then follows
dense growth of forest vines and thick
cts forming an impenetrable Jungle,
80 that one is compelled to cut his way
through.
Deep unfathomable chasms and cav
erns are quite abundant in Puma. Some
OF these caverns extend miles under
ground with many branches leading off
from the main entrance. 1t is not safe
to venture into cave without compe-
tent guide.
Mr.. Wright, Of the Wilder Steamship
Company, has incorporated a coffee as
sociation with a paid up capital of $1,000
for the purpose Of opening up the coffee
country in Puma, The company has
purchased three hundred acres of the
best coffee lands in Puma, to be divided
into ten acre lots, and it is intended to
induce industrious Americans OF small
means to emigrate to the islands and en-
gage in coffee growing. 1t is proposed
to give them one plantation in return
for improving one for the company. The
company itself will have one hundred
acres in coffee, 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 it in this portion
of the Island being the rugged flow called
by the natives "aa." On the first day
We crossed the flow of 1887. This is
black, but after o travel of ten hours, the
color changes. The flow is older, and
trees are found growing on it. Occasion
ally the dead branches of monster ohia
trees could be seen sticking up from the
lava which overwhelmed it in past wears. !