The Hawaiian gazette., 1904-12-13
LOOKING BACKWARD.

The render ~ Mr.. Nordhof"s articles
on HawaH first published over thirty
one yeurs ago will find that disbelief
IN the agricultural capabilities ~ this
group extended at that time to sugar
cane aud coffee. sugar cane. Mr. Nord-
non said. had not entirely failed. yet
when you hear OF plantations which
cost $50 900 sold by the sheriff for ti5,-
600. or OF plantations which cost $780,
900 bought In for $4,000 and hardly pay
ing a profit on even this minor sum-
you viii scarcely regard this industry
as thriving one" And he added in
quotation: There is scarcely a planta-
ton OF sugar which has not ruined the
first and sometimes the second own
ers." Already the borer was at work
and cane, Mr.. Nordhoff said, had be-
gun to suffer from a worm which eats
out the pith near the ground and thus
destroys the whole cane" Surely the
conditions were very bad and Mr.. Nord-
hoff felt justified in warning people to
keep away. what is certain" said
he, "is that these islands, aside from
their fine climate, have absolutely moth
ing to tempt our own people TO live
on them or to invest money in them"
This was In August, 1873. Two years
later 25.0S0.1S2 pounds of sugar were
produced in Hawaii, valued at $1,216,-
1888. Five years after that, in 1880, the
weight of the manufactured product
had risen to 63, 5S4,S71 pounds and the
value to $4,322,711. In 1885 the figures
were III, 35O,314 and the value sS,536,061.
In 1890 Hawaii yielded 259, 7S9, 1862 pounds
of sugar worth s12, 1853, 6S5; and so on UP
to the crop of 1903, which was 774,S25,-
APO pounds, valued at s25,310,6S4. Cof-
fee In the meantime-a product for
which Mr.. Nordhoff said there was no
a large and healthy crop,
the business finally falling off, not be-
cause of pests, but for reason that the
market price of coffee went suddenly
down. ...f
Why was there such failure in the
dire sugar predictions or 1873? 1t was
simply because intelligent men took
hold of the cane industry and applied
science to 1t. They demonstrated that
in spite of the borer, cane could be
profitably grown; and when the reci-
procity treaty was signed they enlisted
tect the fields while they went ahead
in cultivating and reaping them and
milling the crop. The result was to
make Hawaii in the course of a few
years the richest country per capita
on the face of the globe.
What Mr.. NorGhoff said of sugar and
coffee nearly a general ton ago was also
said of most other agricultural prod
ucts except sweet potatoes and taro.
Everything else was doomed, even the
forests were perishing; there was no
chance for the small or general farmer"
The gifted writer even advised against
raising cattle because-and how IA
milar It all sounds; like n Star editorial
because there is no market for beef
and mutton"
But see how the prophet has been
COMPOUNDED. General agriculture has
gone on into sisal, bananas, pineap-
pies. fruit poultry, hogs, honey. graz
ing and milch cattle and is finding its
way toward tobacco, rubber, vanilla,
wine grapes, cocoa and lines; while the
Chinese and japanese are raising nearly
all the vegetables we eat. Hawaii, de-
spite the knockers, who still exist; de-
spite the planters and graziers who
want all the land; despite a govern
ment which has little more faith in di-
versified farming than Nordhoff had In
sugar-Hawaii is slowly but surely be-
coming a country or varied and profit
able agriculture, BY the time another
thlrty-one years passes this paper ex-
poets that the Territory will not only
feed itself and n vastly greater popu-
lation, but will export all the commodi-
ties commonly raised in this latitude.