Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1898-12-16
OUR NEW YORK LETTER,
Some Points About the Cultiva-
ton of Coffee i'm Hawaii.

the Man of Moderate Mems There.
Yet No one should Take Il IN I'm
less lie Has Some Cnsh.
NEW YORK, Dec. 15.-[Spccial. l-R. w.
Shlhgle, Hawaiian commissioner to the
omaha exposition, has recently been
spending few days in this city. While
here the writer asked him some questions
about the probable openings in the islands
Tor men of moderate means and those en-
tirely without money
with regard to the latter Mr.. Single
offered no encouragement whatever, say
ing they could not possibly go to more
unsatisfactory place. There is nothing in
Hawaii for the ordinary white man out of
work ana lacking in cash. In Mr.. Shin
gle's Judgment, coffee culture will be tho
salvation of the man of moderate means
In Hawaii.
Cash Needed For Coffee Growing,
But it must not be understood" said
MIR. Shingle, that coffee can be grown bv
man entirely without capital. That
would be far from the truth. l have re-
Gently received letter from 9. l.. Wight.
the acknowledged coffee expert i'm Hawaii,
In which he says that the cost of bringing
coffee plantation into bearing is about
Sl0O an acre. This does not include price
OF land or interest," expense of manage
ment or living of the planter. Cost of
tools and labor is, however, included in
this estimate
'Coiiee trees are ready to bear four years
after planted. They will then yield about
l,OOO pounds to the acre. 1t is estimated
to cost from to 10 cents pound to raise
coffee in the islands, everything included,
and lay it down at San Francisco, the
great coffee market for Hawaii The 20.
ing price for Hawaiian coffee in san Fran
cisco Is now about 10 cents POUND, the
profit to planters being, say, . cents a
pound, and the demand is good, Hawaiian
coffee being considered equal to the best
Guatemalan article which is the world 5
leading variety.
1t Is expected that Hawaiian coffee
will soon drop in price, say to - cents,
and thus reduce the profits of the growers,
but sharp subsequent rise is also cx-
pccted. There are plenty of cheap cutfees,
such as Rio and Santos, that sell for & and
"a cents, but their quality is so inferior
that Hawaiian growers never need fear
competition from them.
1.-The first cost of land held by private
parties that is suitable for growing coffee
ranges from 81 to 50 an acre Government
lands range from 50 to $40. At the pres
ent time there is practically no such land
for sale, all that has been surveyed having
been taken up. A government survey is
in progress, however, and it will probably
lie completed in about six months Much
of this land lies at some distance from
schools, churches, etc. and out of the beat
en- tracks of travel
"a fair dwelling for family of five
persons can be put up in Hawaii for from
81, 800 to $1,000 A IL by IA two story
house, with veranda and / 900 gallon wa
ter tank, rough board sheathing, white
washed and iron roof, can be put up for
5000. a family of five persons can live in
Hawaii for $50 month, providing "a cow
and poultry are kept, though not luxuri-
ously. 1t will cost $3.50 TO move such q
family from any part of Hawaii to the
coffee districts. This includes passage mon
ey. such crops as corn, Irish potatoes
ETC., can be grown between the rows of
young coffee trees the first two years. but
there is some danger to these crops from
the cutworm. There is ready sale in Ha-
wall for corn, potatoes and in fact all or
binary vegetable crops. just how great
range of vegetable productions is possible
in Hawaii ia yet unknown, however, and
it would not be well TO expect too much
in this direction.
"In Mr. Nights opinion practical cof-
fee farmer, with wife not afraid to work,
might get plantation of, say, ten acres es-
tablshed by the time 81, 600 had been ex-
pended, but he wouldn't advise an inexpe.
rienoed man to try the coffee planting ex-
pertinent in Hawaii on less than S., 600.
Once plantation of coffee trees is in
bearing it is good for from 80 TO so years
of productiveness without much more at.
tention each season than must be paid to
peach orchard in the way of stirring up
the ground pruning the trees, etc. j. NJ.
Horner, Judge Barnard and Peter Peck,
all practical coffee men, substantiate all
that Wight says in his letter.
Experience Needed Also.
Government Land Commissioner
Brown suggests to any one who may think
of coffee planting in Hawaii that com.
petent man be employed first to select the
land and afterward to put out the trees
and look after them. Mr.. Brown would
not advise prospective coffee planter to
take his family to Hawaii until after the
trees are fairly in bearing. A competent
man will charge 81 for selecting the land
and about S25 an acre for managing for
the first four years. Two hundred dollars
an acre would be fair outside price to
pay for the entire four years. That would
include buildings and fences. Items of
primal cost, according to Mr.. Brown,
would include $50 an acre to fell the for
est, leaving the trees in rows, IS an acre
for good nursery plants, So an acre for
planting 500 an acre for wedding the first
four years, SIC an acre for fencing and la
borers' quarters. These, with the super
intendence, a first cost of $35 an acre and
per cent interest, will complete the 5000.
This estimate is apparently higher than
Mr.. Wight's, but as it includes everything
except the cost of living till the trees are
In bearing it is really about the same.
Some coffee plantations have been brought
to maturity at a cost as low as 500 an
acre. Others through blunders, have cost
as high as $500.
Gan ideal coffee plantation would in
clude 60 acres to coffee trees and 80 to pas
ture, but it would cost good deal more
than So, 900 to put such plantation into
bearing condition. 1t will ne seen that
the raising of coffee is no royal road to
wealth, though we consider it a safe one
when properly travelled, but it should be
understood clearly that it requires just as
much work and care and attention to de-
tail as any other business. No one should
go to Hawaii on coffee planting intent
without making plenty of investigation,
and no ono should go at all until the
surveys now going on have been com
pleted."
mko,,rb r.thor mona than il