The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1900-05-30
An AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL
ADVOCATED FOR GIRLS OF THE
ISLANDS.
Miss Lucy Adams Of Kamehameha
Points out How Much May SubservC
an Excellent Purpose.

! At the meeting of the Agricultural
| Society two weeks ago Miss Lucy Adj
ans read the following interesting adj
dress on the subject of an agricultural
! school for girls.
I'm recent report on education, Min
! lister Mott-Smith suggests that when
| the Reform School is moved to Kuhuku,
the present building and grounds be
used as an industrial school for girls.
This suggestion must, | think, meet
with the hearty approval of those who
are genuinely interested in Hawaiians,
and wish to see them receive an educa-
ton fitted to their needs. 1t will also
commend itself to those who hope to
have Honolulu become a model city
a Glasgow of the Pacific as it were.
THE leading cities of America make
ample provision for the manual train
ing of boys, but it is only within the
last year or two that there has been
any organized movement to give girls
Industrial training. 1t is only since jan
uary of this year that the Legislature
of New York passed a bill authorizing
an appropriation of $4,000 to establish
such a school for girls in the city Of
New York, and $4,000 each year, for
a period of five years, for the annual
expenses of said school.
Now 1 would urge that the work of
any such school established here should
be largely agricultural, and for the fol-
lowing reasons: First, the HaWaiians
CHawaiian girls) are really fond of
| flowers: think you will grant that. So
marked an inclination it seems unWise
to disregard, particularly when the rails
ing of flowers and vegetables is SO prof
table an industry here in Honolulu,
and is likely to become still more prof.
| table as more and more ships stop here
] e n ID
! life is one more in accord with the hab-
! it's and traditions of the Hawaiian peo-
! pie. Thirdly, agricultural work, 1t
| seems to me, tends to produce SIM
plicity of aspiration very desirable In
this age, when young persons think
| they must be either teachers or clerks,
| or typewriters. Fourthly it would ena-
/ BILE the Hawaiian wife to help her hus-
| band, supposing he were engaged In
some kind of agricultural work; or even
! if he were not she, too, could be
wage-earner Moreover, it is the sort
of work that more and more girls are
being trained in-both in America and
England. For example, there is the
! State Agricultural College in Iowa.
where at least fifty young women are
learning practical gardening and dairy
| ing Then there is the school at Swan
| ley, a short distance from London
where fifty-nine English girls are
studying horticulture with great enthu-
siasm, so we are told.
$50 much for reasons; now for the
: details, There is about an acre of
| available land at the Reform School,
One fourth could be used for raising
! carnations, cosmos, asters, etc.-Just
such flowers as we know from actual
| experience will grow in Honolulu. On
! the other three-fourths could be raised
! tomatoes, beans, lettuce, radishes, etc.
| The beans, alone, would pay for the
wages of a hired man. All their prod
ucts should be sold so that the pupils
may learn that the market value of a
thing depends largely on the care and
skill put into it's production. Then L
would suggest that the girls he taught
how to collect and dry the acacia farm
esiana, which grows so IuXuriantly
about Honolulu. These flowers are used
| in sachet powders, and bring sixty cents
a pound in New York This is an indus
| try well adapted for girls-a very pleas
| ane one, too. All this agricultural work
must be done Systematically, under an
expert who has had both theoretical
and practical training. This point can
not be insisted upon too often. 1t is
not little desultory nature work for
an hour or two a day, little playing
with soils-nothing amateurish-that l
+ am urging, but continuous work for six
or seven hours a day, under the di-
rection of one who has firm grasp
of his subject and sees how all the ele-
mentary work fits into a larger whole.
There should be a sewing depart
ment, where dressmaking and millinery
are taught; also, the making of artific-
ial flowers. These different departments
would help pay for themselves if they
were put under the direction of a
trained woman.
"It would also be well to have a do
| mt, IN rIi ir1
be taught to work, especially to make
guava jelly, poha jam, mango chutney
and other Hawaiian delicacies which
find a ready market. This would be a
profitable industry.
'In the best schools of this kind
dairying is taught, but that would not
be feasible at the Reform School
grounds. The place is not an ideal one
for an agricultural school, but it will
do well enough for a beginning. Then
if in the course of time the United
States government should give fifty OF
more acres for the purpose-at Makiki
for instance-the agricultural depart
ment of the school could be transferred
there. The school should be, from the
beginning connected with the United
States experiment station and under 1t:
; supervision. The teachers must be eX
perts; the training systematic. The
pupils could enter the school from the
grammar grades, at the age of fourteen
for example. That is the age required
in the agricultural school established
D by the English government for thu
0 Egyptians.
0 at is to be hoped that all who ar
interested in this plan will join In al
organized movement to carry 1t out.
copy of the New York bill is at hand
with an estimate of the cost OF the diff
ferent departments also a syllabus o
8 the agricultural school of Egypt"