The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-02-02
SMALL FARM
INDUSTRY
HiIo Agricultural
Society's Good
Progress.

Farmers Institute:
The Agricultural Society of Hilo
| entered life about a year and half
ago and now has membership of
| AZ. II its existence may be said to
have been inspired by Mr.. Jared Smith
and II the Society owes its origin to
the same general ideas and purposes
to which Is due the Honolulu organl-
cation, its steady growth and the in
creasing interest in its meetings may
fairly be ascribed to the zeal and fos-
tering care of its President, Mr.. Charles
Furneaux, to whom the Society owes
much, including its place of meeting.
IT'S AIMS PRACTICAL.
From the nature OF its membership.
which is largely composed OF practical
| farmers, the aims of the Hilo Society
, are chiefly, IL not wholly, practical,
| and the papers read at its meetings
and the problems propounded by its
| members Tor solution concern the ev-
eryday work of the farm. The theo-
ries of the chemist and the agricultur-
ist have little interest for the general
ity of it's members except in so far as
they may be directly applied to the
production of farm stun. For the re-
suits of scientifically conducted expert
ments and for theories shaped into
practical directions, its members look
to Honolulu, and the papers of the
Experiment Station here are sought
by them with eagerness, read with in
terest. and practically applied so far
as possible
The regular meetings of the Society
are quarterly but during the past year
the Society has held eight regular and
special meetings for the transaction
of business and the reading of papers.
The usual plan of procedure is for the
president to designate individuals to
prepare papers upon specified topics,
the reading of which Is usually follow
ed by interesting discussions and n
comparison of individual experiences.
BY this method the practical advan-
tages are sought of the dissemination
of information among the members,
the comparison of results attained by
similar or by unlike methods to those
indicated by the reader of the paper,
and record of successes and failures.
THE FEDERAL STATION.
Some such method as the above
would seem to be almost a necessity
under the conditions attending Hawai-
ian agriculture. In these Islands al
most every form of farming is more or
less of an experiment, and even the
ones that have been the longest tried
and the most successful, as for in
stance the cane culture and the rails
t,,, a. TO
somewhat changed conditions and to
newly imported diseases which in great
degree must modify earlier methods of
cultivation. Surely IL there Is any
region in all the broad domain of IN
Gle Sam which needs an active Expert
ment Station 1t is the Hawaiian Archi-
pelago. That we have such a station
active in experiment, accurate in re-
sults-is due to the broad and enlight-
ened policy of the national Depart
ment of Agriculture, and there is no
reason to doubt that under the intelli
gent direction of it's present chief, with
his corps of able assistants, all that
can be done for Hawaiian agriculture
by scientific experimentation will be
done.
VARIATION OF CONDITIONS.
The conditions. however, that pre-
vail in the several Islands, while alike
in their more general features, differ
In many important particulars. They
differ not only in the different islands
but they differ materially In the same
island and especially in the largest OF
the group, Hawaii. The climatic con-
d!tions differ, even the soil, though
practically all of it of volcanic origin
differs, and unless the choice of crops
is intelligently made, unless fertilizers
are Discriminatory applied, unless To-
cal conditions are carefully considered,
more or less complete failures are sure
to result. The unfortunate fate of
coffee culture in most of the localities
where tried furnishes striking ex-
ample and there are others.
Defective methods of planting, neg
lect of shade, failure to fertilize and
early pruning are quite enough to ac-
parts of Hawaii, and It IL the |
conviction of not a few members of the
Society that the time will yet come
when scientific experimentation and a |
careful study of local conditions will
make coitee culture one OF the leading |
industries of the island.
1t is for the central Agricultural Sta
tion to experiment and to formulate
general methods of procedure which |
must be modified by the so-called prac-
teal farmer according to the special |
condition of his own farm.
LOCAL SOCIETY'S FIELD.
Here then IL the field of the local |
Agricultural Sor'ety. 1t forms sort |
of clearing house FOR the discussion or |
local agricultural conditions and the |
treatment OF crops. The greater the
OF local societies In these Is
lands and the more active and interest
ed their members prove to be, the more
and serviceable become the
lessons taught by the central station.
unless the experiments OF an