Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1898-07-11
AN OLD CRY.
Wanted: A Scientific Agricul-
turaI Department.


and that we are again referring to it
is for the purpose of bringing
prominently before the Government
what has been done elsewhere in
the same line, and the happy results
that have accrued therefrom. The
failure of the sugar industry in the
West Indies has been 50 widespread
and so serious that after the report
of a specially appointed Commission
to inquire into the causes, the I'M
perial Government has decided to
grant some relief, but in what form
has not yet been specified. The
bounties on beet sugar have all along
been credited with the West Indian
disaster, and it has been regarded
as another instance of few suffer-
ing for the benefit of the many.
The masses have been able to get
their sugar cheap, at the expense of
the bounty-paying Governments.
1t is said, of course, that British
planters will have to 90 to the wall;
but the balance of advantage to the
nation at large far outweighs the
loss to the West Indian growers.
Tropical Agriculturists will, perhaps,
open their eyes to find that the
Spectator, the organ of the leisured
and cultured classes at home-is
coming out as authority on sugar
growing, but so it is! The West
Indian planters are old fashioned,
and stick to their ancient methods of
extracting the cane juice; and while
nature has blessed them with the
finest soil for sugar growth, they
are now on their beam ends simply
from want of scientific knowledge.
While it takes sixteen tons of cane
to make one ton of sugar in St.
Kits, Egypt can do as well from
ten tons, Queensland from nine
tons and Hawaii from eight tons, and
the Egyptian and Queensland sugars
are worth G3 ton more than in the
worlds markets. Java, too, has
been able to hold its own. The
writer of the article under review
quotes from The Sugar Cane as
follows: The Java planters, though
heavily weighed by the low prices
lately current, and by the occur
renee of a new disease which has
done extensive damage, continue to
hold their own, being greatly assisted
by the capital chemical control of
their factories, and the valuable in
formation supplied by their expert
mental stations. Every possible
advantage is secured to them in
this manner, and their enViable posi-
tion is mainly due TO their intelligent
utilization Of all the hints that agri-
cultural and chemical science are con-
tinuallp atording hem."
The lines we put in italics contain
the key to the success of the Dutch
planters of Java. They have been
handicapped in the same manner
and to the same extent as the West
Indian planter has been; but they
have stood the strain, whereas the
others have broken down. 1t is
preSumable that what Java could do
should be accomplished in Barba-
does, which is perhaps naturally
the finest island under the sun for
the growth of sugar y; but simply
for want of agricultural and chemi-
cal science locally applied, is all but
bankrupt. 1t is to be presumed that
in time British coloniStS and tropical
planters will wake up to the need of
having the best scientific advice
available for all kinds of tropical
agriculture and in all tropical COL
onies, but necessary reforms of this
kind are slowly evolved. Our home
authorities have the courage to run
a railway through a sparsely-popu-