The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-02-10
EARNS AND THEIR PESTS.

The everyday criticism of small farm
ing in Hawaii is that. while the lan'
Yields well and market prices are high
1t does not pay to fight destructive bugs
and insects. Precisely the same thing
was said of pioneer farming on the
mainland The early New Englandei
had hard time battling with the
naarauders Of the air and forest when
he planted corn. myriads Of crows de-
seconded upon the tender young shoots by
day and the deer came to feed by night.
The wheat suffered from the wild goose.
wild turkey and the weevil. AS the
remnant of the crops matured, the
ripening corn became the prey OF coons
and squirrels as well as larger quadru-
peds and a great variety of birds as
sailed the tassels of the wheat. Fruit
and vegetables were fair game for
host of feathered and four-footed
thieves and insect depredators, from
robins and jays to rabbits and grass
hoppers. Even chicken raising was no
pastime, with hawks circling above the
fowls by day and foxes and wild cats
proving by night. Getting living was
an everlasting fight in pioneer days;
but the time came when, by the SET
ELEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. some
of the pests disappeared and the rest
became easy to keep down.
That is the keynote of the fight
against agricultural pests everywhere
the settlement of the country. Today a
man goes out into the middle of a thou
sand acres of wild land and plants a
little garden. At once the pests of the
jungle rally on the fresh vegetables and |
the farmer fights against odds. But let
a few score more farmers come in, Gull
tivating the whole thousand acres and
each tract has no more destructive in
sects than its owner can handle. OBJ
serve the Chinese n1arket-gardeners
whose vegetable farms are within city
limits or in long settled suburbs. Don't
they succeed? Don't they manage to
feed themselves and the town besides?
There is no necromancy about it all;
IL is simply the result Of good judg-
ment in picking out place to cuiti-
yate and industry in pushing the work.
What the Cinnamon do in these respects
is possible for the superior Caucasian.
In any part of the islands white farm
ers, If they cultivate large enough
contiguous area, can handle the pest
question as easily as they do, in Ohio
or California or Mississippi.
But destructive insects attack in the
main, the growths of staple or general
agriculture, which are not the crops
we recommend to the white producers
Of Hawaii. The farmer here must not
expect to get rich in growing the things
Of which California yields an overplus.
II he does he will have nothing to ex-
port; and in the home market he will
meet the rivalry of Asiatics. His great
lies in special agriculture,
he pests to threaten which either have
lot developed or are easily controlled.
Let him avoid wheat, corn and garden
ruck, except for his own private use,
Ind either go into dairy products, for
which the whole country is adapted or
he raising of sisal, pineapples. tobacco,
bananas, poultry, small fruits, E
he pests count for little and the profits
or much. They are the ones to which
he small farmer should be invited
md the way prepared for him.
l.