The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-11-02
A WORD WITH Mr. ATHERToN.

In discussing Mr.. Atherton's secon
letter from Kula, this paper will begi
by saying again that it does not urg
for these islands the agriculture of tn
North Temperate Zone, except as
side issue. The farmer may raise dair
products, forage, poultry. cattle. sheer
hogs vegetables and honey for his owl
support while growing tropical prod
ucts for sale, but he cannot usual!
put his whole reliance on them as tn
people seem to do in Kula. There i:
but one chance. AS rule the troplca
planter with capital will prefer to buy
his northern staples of farmers living
at higher altitude; and in such q
condition is Kula's best hope. For in
stance, if the available tropical dis
tricts below that locality were filled
ND with people raising tobacco, vanilla,
sisal pineapples, alligator pears, wine
self. if intelligently titled, ought to
thrive. But it cannot hope to send its
commodities to Honolulu in competition
with our own market-gardeners and
the importers of California staples The
Advertiser has never advocated any
such course
In describing the difficulties which
Kula farmers have to contend with Mr.
and potatoes from insects the shoots
have to be sprinkled with flour and
paris green. But so with potatoes in
the Eastern States where, after all this,
trouble, they are sold at retail as low
as twenty-five cents a bushel. In many
States corn is similarly treated, but no.
farmer gives up his task On that ac-
count. such pests as affect northern
farming in Kula are not worth men,
tfoning besides those which attack the
farming in New York. Massachusetts
and other states. There are 1900 known
agricultural pests on the continent of |
North America, principally blights.
Crows. many varieties of song birds,
feathered game, raccoons, rabbits.
hawks. squirrels, chipmunks, wood
chucks. weasels, foxes, potato bugs.
srasshoppers, army worms, slugs, rust.
cut-worms, beetles, fruit tree worms,
etc. are but few of the varied and
active ravagers of the northern crops;
and in his pioneer days the farmer had
Guiding deer, bear and. wildcats. But
he stuck to his job and is now the chief
producer of American wealth. Forum
afeIy he did not have a community of
knockers to discourage him.
Now as to the actual trouble with
Kula where, in years past, even drouth
or too much rain did not spoil the
harvest. Farmers who know their
business and have been there, say that
the filters of the soil IN Kula are ignor-
ant of their trade. They do not I'M
derstand so simple thing as rotation
OF crops; they plant potatoes where
they have always planted them and
corn on land where successive crops
of the same kind have exhausted the
corn producing elements in the soil. OF
proper fertilization and soil analysis
they have no idea. What they suffer
from is not so much the pests as their
sown crude ways of agriculture.
We contend that in no part of Hawaii
are half the drawbacks that exist in
the richest agricultural regions of
Southern California. There soil of
mixed sand, alkali and adobe is subject
TO seven months of actual drouth and
To ave months of seni-drouth-a place
deemed bountfful. In that region crops
have to be defended with tight fences
from rabbits; gophers abound; the dove
and quail are always busy in the
fields; cutworns and grasshoppers and
wild fowl are myriad; water for irriga-
ton costs large sums; there is also a
transportation trust and a labor>prob-
lem Yet Southern California today is
a rich agricultural domain because it's
people, never discouraged, full Of
American grit and pluck and knowl-
edge of their business. have made it so.
Any practical, educated farmer look
ing over Hawaii. knows it to be full of
potential agricultural wealth sisal is
making millions for Yucatan: as good
sisal grows here as there. Wine grapes
are making millions FOR France, Ger
many and California; as good wine
grapes grow here as there. Tobacco is |
making Cuba rich and sumatra and the
Philippines prosperous; our tobacco,
scientifically produced, is highly COM
mended by the F'ederal Experiment.
station. We are exporting pineapples
and bananas now; vanilla is proving its
way: our coffee is getting a reputation;
q To-