The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-08-27
THE SMALL ECONOMIES.

While hard times in Hawaii are not
likely to outlast the sugar crop OF 19o4'
the situation in the meantime is one
which impresses the public with the
reed of a stricter household economy
1t is obvious from market reports that
people are eating much less meat thah
they were and that the use OF the lux
ur,es of food is diminishing in ratio
with the decrease of incomes. Many
peopIe. however, who want to econo-
mise. do not know precisely how They
have been so long accustomed TO ouy-
ing that they do not know how 10 pro-
auca for themselves, and so 1t comes
about that a dooryard which couid
easily keep a cow in grass is used TO
support a Jap yardboy instead and
hact ward which would run a kitchen
garden or give shelter to dozen egg
LAYING hens, is left to decorative ouI
wholly Improbable function. Mean
while milk is bought at 12h cents
quart eggs at fifty cents dozen anu
vegetables at a price nearly three nun
dred per cent greater than is charseu
in notwithstanding an outlay oA
enough in a year to support ra1niiy
in a country village on the mainland.
A cow is one of the most profitaole
Investments a small family with fair
sized grassplat can make for the $40
q viii cost. One was reported yester-
day when netted its owner $40 per
month. From eight to fourteen quarts
of milk a day gives everybody enough
to drink, leaves some for cream putter
and cottage cheese, some for hot cakes
and. in the sourest form, residue LOT
hens. Store food for the amman VIII
cost about what three pints OF milk
ner day costs at retail. By growing a
little sorghum, an easy thing TO do'
milk of exceeding richness can be had.
Many people do not keep hens for
fa,r that they will not do well in this
climate. But experience shows tnat'
If hens are cared for properly, given
plenty of green stuff and fresh water
sand and a clean roosting and nesting
Mace they will thrive and pay. The
mortality among hens is chiefly In
large f1ocks where they are subject to
some neglect and a good deal of con-
tagion. A dozen or fifteen hens, when
consume the contents of the garbage
pail and pick up bugs and insects
around the premises, save their owner
a deal of money every month and add
to the freshness of his table fare
The vegetable garden ought to -four
ish in Honolulu in other hands than
those of Chinese. All it needs is care,
and where the garden is small, ram
iIy can look after it as well as the OH
entails look after their large tracts
ANYBODY who will take the trouble and
has a plot of rich ground, twenty by
forty. which the sun reaches, can raise
his own radishes. beets, cabbages,
onions. cucumbers, tomatoes, lettuce,
string beans and okra-enough to sup
plv the wants of a good-sized family
and save from three to seven dollars a
week. About the only crop he will
have trouble with is the cucumber, but
the insect which attacks the leaves
can be cleared off by using an emul-
sion of soap and kerosene, the formula
for which can be got of the u 5. Elk
nerirnent Station. To have absolutely
fresh vegetables is worth while of It
Golf. to have them and save the money
now paid Cinnamon for half stale veg
etables, is a triumph of economy.
There are hundreds of city places
where all these thrifty lodges can De
advantageously tried; though OF course
the suburbs open the wider neld'
These are now being reached and open
ed ND by the rapid transit and the
number who are seeking them as a
means of living off the soil is gratify-
ingly large.