The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-03-11
FRUIT AND COFFEE:
Some Of The Work Of Prof. KOe-
belle for the Islands.
A new MANILA MANGO
Nine Varieties of Fruit Coffee
vice to Hawaiian Coffee Men.

A very important section of the
work of Professor Koebele here for the
Government and the agricultural in
terest at large lies in the introduction
etc. He has given a good deal of time
and attention to this branch and the
prospects are that he will accomplish
much for the benefit of the Islands.
Professor Koebele is making the clos
est study to discover what will be
suitable to the climate and will avoid
the importation of anything that would
be at all likely to fail. In two or three
instances the Professor has brought
seeds to learn only that he was "fetch-
ing Goals to Newcastle" either Mr.
Marsden or someone else having
thought before of the adaptability Of
certain fruits or trees for Hawaii.
Upon his arrival in the Islands for
this present stay, Professor Koebele
brought from Mexico no less than nine
new varieties of fruit. All of the seeds
have turned out we'll and he is cer-
tain that the experiment in each in
stance will give satisfaction and the re-
suit will be the addition of much vari-
ETY. to the fruit here. He says that
Hawaii has the soil and climate for
fruits of the tropics and in a very few
localities for fruits of the temperate
zone. All Mexican fruits will do espe-
cialIy we'll here and some of them are
delicious. In Mexico, guaVas, alliga-
tor pears and mangoes are common
as they are in Hawaii. Professor
Koebele has introduced several new
varieties Of the alligator pear that are
doing we'll
Professor Koebele takes quite a spe-
ciaI interest in the mango and promises
to give the Islands, from Mexico, a
mango that will be more highly priced
than any ever seen here He sent for
some seeds, but they were improperly
packed and spoiled in shipment. He
has now sent on an order for the fruit
itself This new one is called the Ma
Mia mango. Professor KOebele be-
lieves it better to get the fruit as it
has grown in Mexico than to bring it
from Manila At the retail fruit stands
III ali IllC CllICS anu NllIdSCS vi AhCA1-
co the ordinary mangoes sell at from
three to half a dozen for one cent. A
single Manila mango costs from three
to twelve cents. The fruit is large
and of delicious flavor Beneath the
skin it is Of about the consistency of
butter, is not "stringy' and is every
where most highly priced by all who
like fruit. 1t is planned that this Ma
nil will hn hor in,
few years.
Of the score or more Of men in Ha-
waii who have been in Mexico or one
Of the several coffee producing cOun-
trise south of that Republic, Professor
Koebele is assuredly the best equipped
in every way to give an accurate and
intelligent account of the condition in
that whole territory of coffee culture.
He hunted blight and injurious insects
in Mexico for many months and made
the closest personal inspection of many
of the large coffee and fruit estates.
Mexico has 100000 people Of this
total, 10000 are the so-called poems.
They are the tillers of the soil and the
labor supply Of the country. All the
work is done by them. But labor is
scarce in Mexico. Thepeons are attached
to their little homes or to the great plan
tations upon which they have spent
their lives and are averse to travelling
or to remaining away from their ordi-
nary associations. The beginning of
the development of Mexico is recent
and the first progressive movement ran
against the labor problem and has not
yet surmounted it, A great step is
being made in the direction of solu-
tion by the establishment of a japanese
colony. The Japanese are going there
now as settlers on a selected tract OF
0,000 acres. 1t is confidently expected
that these pioneers will be followed by
thousands of laborerS and that the
poems will wake up some day and be
told that they are being pushed tC
the wall by the invaders" Only last
year a California syndicate lost
money on its big coffee crop in Mexico
because the labor for picking could
not be secured.
Two-bits per acre is not the uni
form price Of land sold willingly by
the Mexican Government to foreign
ers, but areas of square miles in extent
have been sold at that figure. Coffee
land has been sought One American
company is now selling coffee land
with trees three years old at So and
acre All coffee culture in the past has
been by the crudest and most careless
methods and the green coffee has been
sold for seven Mexican dollars a bag OF