The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-02-15
AN AGRICULTURAL PARALLEL.


The people who carp at the agrieul
turaI capacity Of Hawaii have theil
prototypes in the early annals OF Cali
fornia. When the miners ioeked there
in 1919 and for some years later, they
regarded California as q desert II
which any form OF agriculture would
be necessarily fruitless- Coming from
the verdant East and knowing nothing
of irrigation. they looked askanee 81
the treeless and arid mesas, the sum
mer,s drouth. the sand and adobe, al
the buneh-grass and prickly pear To
them California was merely a mining
country to which ones daily bread
must be imported; and for good
while they brought wheat. fruits, vege-
tables and even soft-flling for their
beds from Hawaii.
Necessity, IN due time, drove them
to the cultivation OF wheat-in which
the mission fathers had. indeed, pre-
ceded them-and of fruit and garden
truck They were amazed to find,
even IN the valley OF the San Joaquin,
that when they tIckled the earth
with a hoe 1t laughed harvest. +" OF
all places the San Joaquin had been
the most unpromising; and IN 1882 a
Government survey had pronounced
its case hopeless. 1t was part OF the
Great American Desert we used 10 see
on the maps; spot inhabitable only
by the Indian, the rattlesnake and the
horned toad Indeed. all of Califor
MIA was so n1aligned by no less a per
sonage than Daniel Webster who, rs
ing In his place in the Senate TO discuss
the proposed annexation of California,
said:
What do We want Of this vast,
worthless area, this region OF savages
and wild beasts. of deserts, of shift
ing sands and whirlwinds, of dust, of
cactus and prairie dogs1 To what use
could we ever hope TO put these great
deserts or these endless mountain
ranges, impenetrable or covered to
their bases with eternal snowl What
can we ever hope to do with the west |
ern coast, a coast OF three thousand |
miles, rockbound, cherries and unin- |
vItIng, with not harbor In it2 What |
use have we for such a eountry7 Mr. /
President, I viii never vote one cent
from the public treasury to place the
Pacific coast one inch nearer Boston
than it is To-Day
But California gradually, but surely,
unfoIded itself. First vegetables and |
cereals were raised; then fruit and
wine were ADDED to the. resources of
the new State; and today there is lit
tie grown IN the north temperate zone
which does not find IN California a
natural habitat. And new agricultural
merits are all the time being discov
cred Observe this in recent num-
Der of the Los Angeles Times:
ssThe possibilities of the soil in
California are constantly widening.
Fifty years ago, the pioneers doubted
California would ever be able
to raise enough wheat for home con-
Ten years ago. II was gen
orally understood that we could not
raise good apples in Southern Califor
MIA display of Southern California
apples, made at the Los Angeles Cham
Der of Commerce last year, opened the
ewes of many people on this subject.
1t is true that apples cannot he sue
eessfuIIy grown all over Southern Cal
can oranges for that mat
ter-but in a section which possesses
such a remarkable variety Of climate
and soil ranging from the frostless
belts OF the foothills to mountain val
Ieys. where there Is snow for several
of the year 1t would be strange
il some localities were not found where
the apple, regarded by some as the
king of fruits, fiourishes. "
Had the early miners found in Cal
fornia a country like Hawaii, the
question of agricultural capacity would
not have been raised. One glance at
the Hawaiian lands would have been
enough to teach them, coming as they
did from eastern and southern farms,
that these islands were the natural
home OF the husbandman. Singularly
enough. however, 1t is our own people
who, in so many eases, remain TO be
convinced, despite the opulent results
Of sugar planting, the truck farm sue
resses OF the Asiaties, the Iusty growth
of banana, pineapple and sisal and the
news about tobacco and
vanilla. In time, of course, HAWAII
ans viii wake up TO their opportuni-
ties, as Californians have done; but
it is a pity that their eyes are not
open now.