The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-25

highly expedient. Secretiveness in this
respect is most blameworthy. Should any
one planter happen to discover that a
particular style of pruning, handling,
ETC.. produces better results than that
commonly adopted, he should let his
neighbors share in the benefits to be de-
rived from his personal experience, and
not bottle up his knowledge-aS is too fire.
quently done all over the world-if not
in coffee in other mundane pursuits.
It has been said that owing to the ber-
ries ripening all the year round the cost
gathering makes it almost prohibitive.
Probably if it We're said here that this
ripening of the berries in driblets could
be prevented, some of the older hands
might be heard to say something about
grandmothers and stocking eggs; never
theless, no harm is done by venturing
the deduction that judicious pruning in
season would have a beneficial effect,
and confine the blossoming to Ct limited
period. A large number of plants are
susceptible to careful pruning in this
way. True, Liberian coffee is a notable
exception to this theory; but this varie-
ty of the fragrant bean can, in a meas
ure, be brought to reason in its time of
poisoning, under the influence of the
knife.
The high figure that has to be paid for
labor is another reason given for the
depression. Undoubtedly labor is costly
lana In6TG OOSS lOl appear 10 De HUGH
chance of its being less SCAT any rate,
/ in the Immediate sfuture-it therefore be-
hooves the employer to work with as
few hands as possible, consistent with
the proper cultivation of his estate
Nearly every one knows that paid la
Dor in ninety-nine cases out of hum
dred, has to be driven; also that when
man has a personal interest in his
work. beyond his wage, he sets-to will
lingly; the consequence being that the
work is better done-and more of it. AS
such is the case, why not give each en-
ploye a pecun1ary interest in the results
of his labor, in the form of a bonus, to-
be done, the number of men on the
check-roll might be materially reduced
without detriment to the property.
The writer of the letter referred to
stated that planters could not sell their
coffee at any price-for, five cents a
pound to be taken out in stores is no
price. There is something radically
wrong herei
Hawaiian coffee is unquestionably of
the coffee Arabica Species although the
berries are different in shape to those
grown in Ceylon. This, however, is not
discouraging. There is no coffee more
appreciated or that fetches a higher
price in Australia than that which is
sent from New Caledonia; and there the
trees and berries are fac simile to those
grown and borne in these Islands Again,
Bourbon coffee is at a high premium in
Mauritius and Seychelles. The bean
produced on that island is also similar to
Hawaiian coffee. 1t may, however, be
mentioned that one cause for Bourbon
coffee being in such high favor is its
choice aroma. This is attributed to it's
being dried in the cherry, as is the case
with the best Mocha.
! Wherein then is the cause of Hawaiian
coffee being drug on the market?
] Ii conjecture be permissible on the
part of one who engaged in the indus
try in Ceylon during many years when
coffee was king in that spicy isle, the
assumption is that the beans are want
ing in uniformity, both in color and
size. Another hypothesis is that occa-
sionally trash is put on the market, and
this has got the staple a bad name. Here.
by parenthesis, let note of warning be
sounded for the benefit of those who are
now embarking in vanilla culture. Rathef
than send lean and foxy beans-for of
these in a crop there will always be
some-into the market, put them into the
fire. Hawaiian territory has vet to
make name for itself as a vanilla pro-
dueing country; therefore. don't damn
the industry in its infancy by trying to
sell the sweepings-there is a sufficiency
OF dollars in the good quality without
doing this.