The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-01-19
SOME REMARKS ON
SMALL FARMING

Editor Advertiser: I just read in
! your paper an article headed: Chance
| TO grow valuable fguit. That set me
! thinking. What [ first thought was,
! Il wonder what is the matter with
guavas? They let thousands of
bushels rot and poison the air every
year, though that fruit gives the best
jelly and jam I ever have tasted, fresh
and bountiful favor And. so l
thought: 81 wonder if some of that
tempt to grow pineapples, would not
give better return if it was spent in
picking guavas?' 1t looks, as people
here think, that agriculture is some
thing that everybody knows without
learning it. | just had chance to see
a man preparing his land for pine
apples in such way that he had I'M
reasofia ble expense. Ifs he gets any
pineapples at all, then the land here
must be stu more productive than [
take it for, and that really means a
great deal This man 1 even know to
be a very intelligent one, with high
education and surely a frst-class man
in his position. Now, | can under
stand well enough that such a man
finds it interesting to do some expert
menting when he has the money and
likes to spend it in that way. There
would not be anything to say about
that if there was not that little pilikia
in it that a few wrong attempts may
set the whole pineapple industry to
discredit-and that really would be u
pity. At present, at least, the pine
10 ind To hor, So
here, if conducted properly. Now, we
know that the small farmer (profes-
sional or amateur) grows pineapples
with the intention to sell them to the
canneries, but canneries at Haiku use
the most modern machinery and tools
for the culture and nothing but expert
enced men to do the work, consequent
ly they obtain the best possible crop
for the least possible expense. Now. I |
suppose that nobody expects the can
neries to pay more than what they can
raise the fruit for themselves. If they
do, it must be out of pure charity, and
that kind of charity generally has to
be paid for in some way. That an I'M
experienced man can not raise crops
as cheap as the cannery is clear.
So, we have another class of pine
apple growers: men that have expert
ence enough, but they plant on so
steep land that all work has to be done
by hand. They get the best pine
apple, [ suppose, but if it pays is an
other question; and if it does not pay,
what are they doing then? They sim
ply start distillery and make liquor.
Liquor always pays for those who make
it and those who sell it. Never mind
the poor devils who pay for it. Now,
If some of that money that he wasted
in pineapples be invested in guavas,
then it might give little work to
some of the pretty young girls that we
see around here sometimes, finely
dressed and with their hair fixed in
latest style, sitting embroidering on "a
small, dirty veranda and her mother
dirty from head to feet-workingi
ike a negro in front of her. But the
young girl has been to the public
school, of course, and learned music
and recitation, and all that modern
stuff so very useful for hard-workingi
family, Well, [ know, of course, I
have old-fashioned principles. 1 have
passed the age, you know, when poor
people ought to be chloroformed ac-
cording to modern principles [ am
even So old-fashioned that I can not
see that a forest looks good when it is
lying and has not produced a good log
FOR half century II
w HANNESTAD.
Kai1iili, Jan. Is, 1906