The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-02-09
HAWAIIAN COTTON
Samples of Staple Grown
in Honolulu.
Compares FavorabIy With the Rest
Sea Island" of Southern
United States.

The cotton brought to this office a
sacola street, is of the species which
includes only that grown on the sea
islands off the coast of South Carolina
and Georgia, and in a small district
around the town of Jasper, in Northern
Florida. 1t has been tried without sue
cess in all OF the Gulf States, in Cuba,
China and near the Black Sea, in Rus
STA. While it is an exceptionally hardy
cotton plant, for the proper develop
ment of it's fineness of fiber and length
of staple, the most favorable soil and
climatic conditions are essential. The
cotton itself is the finest in the world.
1t carries an average two-inch staple,
and is as light, delicate and glossy as
silk floss. On the Liverpool market all
of it harvested in fine weather will
grade middling fair, the highest for
cotton; and it will bring in the same
mart and elsewhere about twice the
price per pound as is paid by the jap
anese for the white short-staple cotton
of Texas, which passes Honolulu in the
hold of every Oriental steamer.
There are many species of cotton;
and the species have themselves been
divided and sub-divided under many
different names. The tree cotton is
indigenous to most tropical climes, and
has been successfully introduced in all
the Pacific groups. But as a cotton-pro-
ducing plant it is, and must always be,
failure. 1t grows wild in these ISL
ands, in Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa and many
other archipelagoes. AS a seed produc-
er it is, with cultivation, without equal.
But the lint output will not run above
/ 20 10. or in ratio of | to with the
sea island species. The short cotton is
the cotton of commerce-and there are
a hundred different kinds of it, all diff
fering in minor points, but in the main
being the same In the Southern
States the upland short staple product
is the most common. The effort every
where is to improve the staple without
reducing the yield. Gibbs silk cotton,
ZeITs cluster" and many other sub
divisions of the same species have been
successfully introduced on the land
away from the sea. OF all, however,
the sea island product stands supreme
as a producer and in fineness. Its ter
ritory is so limited that the demand
for it has always been far in excess of
the supply.
1t comes now in the way of a discov-
cry that this latter species of cotton
will flourish in the Hawaiian Islands
not alone flourish, but Will outstrip in !
production what it has done on the
sea islands, where it is most cultivated. |
A gentleman of Honolulu, who has !
made life study of the plant, import |
ed about a year ago a quantity of sea
island cotton seed for experimental pur- |
poses The planting of September L, |
1896, is perhaps the most interesting, |
for the reason that the experiment was |
subjected to natural conditions only, |
without the employment of irrigation |
or any unusual amount of cultivation. |
From prior experiments the wonderful |
of the soil was clearly dem |
onstrated. The tendency of the plant |
was to shoot rapidly upward, as in the
case in rich lowlands of the sea islands, |
going to wood in place of to lateral |
branches and fruit. To meet this, when
the plants of the September experiment |
reached a height of about two feet, the /
tops were clipped off. The result? At
once limbs started out on every side.
Each one was covered with forms,
which, in the course of a few days.
bloOmed out and bOlls were formed.
The spreading process continued until,
at the end of four months, the plants
covered an area of about six feet each.
Today the cotton is opening and is
being picked. At the same time the
plants are growing, blooming and pro-
1ucing. There is nothing in the soil
nor the climate to stay this process. In
he South frost and cold weather check