The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-10-27
Whitney q Marsh, Ltd.


line with special interestsit has become
a hobby with me.
I shall not attempt to tell you how to
make fortune on half an acre in half
as many years because none of. you
would follow my directions, nor shall
1 follow the old time monthly garden
calendar idea which gave the minutest
instruction to every detail in gardening
operations; happily the day is passing
when the chief aim of books is to save
one the trouble of thinking. In no
other calling as in ours, with it's con-
stantly varying conditions, are there
better teachers than the personal OBJ
servations and deductions obtained in
practical experience harnessed to the
suggestive helps from our National De-
partment of Agriculture, the Agrioul-
tural colleges, and experimental sta
tons, the Agricultural press and, last
but OF least, from Farmers Institutes
i like ours, which give mutual strength
and inspiration for further work.
Science and practice are each year
becoming better friends. We are no
longer satisfied in knowing how to hoe,
irrigate or fertilize our crops, but we
must know the why as well. And l
cannot do better than to touch upon
some of the broad underlying princi-
pies of agriculture, as they must equal
ly apply to vegetable gardening, and
perhaps suggest factors that may apply
/ to your conditions.
| Soil is the foundation and climate the
roof of the farm, and vegetable garden
! in is farming intensified. But to the
market gardener the selection of a
! favorable location is as important as
the soil,-"More mighty than Art is Ma
ture," yet much can be done to improve
, a deficient soil. Great as is the value
of deep, rich, sandy loan for garden
ing purposes, no one doubts the greater
/ value of Wahiawa here than if it were
on any of the other islands We cannot
lose sight of market opportunities and
shipping facilities, ITO produce is one
thing, to sell another
/ Both soil and location must to a great
extent determine the kind of produce
! to be grown. If near local market,
then variety rather than quantity
counts, and one often becomes his own
direct salesman, which calls for the
rare combination of business ability
and gardening skill, business of small
but important detail. On the other
hand, the extensive trucker at dis
tance is confronted by other problems.
No matter how plentiful and how ex-
cellent his crop, if his market be glut-
ted, even the low resulting profits are
too often swallowed up by commission
rates and freight charges. Again, the
perishable nature of truck crops makes
them especially susceptible to loss, thus
compelling the more costly rapid transit
tination. 1t has been estimated that the
producer often receives less than 80 per
cent of the price paid by consumers, a
strong intimation that our methods of
marketing are still extremely crude. To
remedy so gross defect is surely
worthy of careful study, since every
per cent of increase in the farmers re-
turns is clear profit. Perhaps you have
worked out the problem to your own
satisfaction, but 1 dare say there is
room for improvement everywhere. My
own thought in the matter is that
specialization must gradually be de-
veloped in ones crops, and only by
careful organization and cooperation
can you obtain the benefits to be deriv-
ed from the combined knowledge, in
fluence and resulting strength so essen
Colony is destined to become a large
and influential institution if you so will
il.
To me, farming, and especially vege-
table gardening, is an experimental
science, and every farmer is an expert
menter to greater or less extent
; New questions are continually arising
and the Intelligent agriculturist an
swers them by putting such questions
TO the soil or crops themselves. Every
farm is chapter in the open book OF
nature, and, at Kamehameha these
, chapters have been divided into sew
eral paragraphs, some of which may
be interesting and suggestive.
Our whole farm has been plotted and
the different fields designated. A care.
full record is kept of all operations sucf
as clearing, tilling, sowing, varieties
their source, cost, time of maturity, and
, quality and quantity of the product
: Variety tests are constantly under way
and these test the seasons and beneff
> of rotation Much good, I think, ha.
resulted in practical as we'll as in al
! educational way. With the new schoo
year we have taken up fertilizing ex
perlments in connection with method!
of cultivation, irrigation and drainage
} ana we are planning systematic fgh
: against insect pests for the coming sea
son. We are fortunate in having TN,
critical trade of the schools, and NAM
valuable lessons in neatness. cleanli