The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-02-10
FROM HONOLULU.
THE COFFEE PLANTATIONS IN
HAWAII.
Fine Investments That will Grow.

Correspondents to TIE CoMMoNwEALrA)
HONOLULU, H. l., Jan. 10, 1898.
have taken great interest during
my stay here and have visited good
many coffee plantations, for the past
five or six months, and have become
greatly interested in the culture OF 1t,
being quite a farmer myself. These
farms are far ahead of the cotton farms
in the United States. People who
have made careful study of the coffee
question are now looking towards the
Hawaiian Islands for the solution of
the problem OF cheap coffee for the
United States in the next fifty years or
more. It is not generally known that
there will soon be big annual supply
of coffee from the Islands for the mar
ket of the world and that when the
product begins to be shipped, it will
grow in rapid rate, as the new trees
come to maturity and as the old ones
increase in productiveness. 1t is won-
derful how the crown lands, fit for
coffee, have been taken up, on the
Island Of Hilo, which Is called the lava
district. 1t has been found that the
cleared is better than the dense forests.
1t was at first cleared for the coffee
plantations and there must be fully
5000 good acres for the industry still
available.
It is not good thing for men with
no money to 60 in the coffee business
for they are sure to fail. A man who
comes to these islands to 60 into the
coffee business ought to have enough
money to pay for clearing his land, and
this will cost about 40 dollars an acre.
The planter then wants enough to live
on for five years until his crop bears
and enough to pay the interest on his
Investment, for if he comes with only
a few hundred dollars he is almost sure
to fail in his undertaking. Several
hundred thrifty young men, from all
parts of the world, have settled in the
rich district, in the past four or FIVE
years and they VIII soon realize hand
some incomes from their investments.
I suppose there is fully $2,OOO,OOO
now invested in coffee on all the islands.
There is large two-story mill in
Honolulu for cleaning the berries and
sorting them into pearl, extra prime.
prime and cullings. Things of this
kind will develop more and more as
time rolls on. In short time there
will be more people engaged in coffee
than In any other enterprise in the
islands. The business is particularly
ot+roo%i,,o 70 voo,, ~f .,no1i rooo~c for
nearly all the gorges and little valleys
are susceptible of cultivation for coffee,
whereas it requires large tract of land
to be OF any service In our country for
cotton, corn or wheat.
In the islands there are great many
men in the coffee business, with only
ten or fifteen acres OF land in coffee
trees and the returns from this are en-
couraging enough to justify man of
a family to undertake the venture,
with a good hope that he will come out
all right in few years.
I am not trying to give too much
nope or to induce people to come to
the islands, but I am of the belief that
there is not a more encouraging busi-
ness in the world than the coffee in
dustry if it is undertaken in business
like way by an industrious man with a
good capital. 1t is said by the business
men that there will be great deal OF
coffee shipped from the islands this
year and that these shipments will be
followed by a great deal more next year
Tor many trees come to maturity in
1899. The chief reason for the great
promise of the Hawaiian coffee is that
it requires less care in its growing than
in other parts of the world where it is
grown with success. The soil is. deep
and rich and the seasons favor both
man and coffee plant. This coffee belt