The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-02-05

Mr. krauss. the agricultural teacher
at Kamehameha schools, delivered the
/ following address at the last Thursday
Club meeting:
| | am a believer in the small farm
for Hawaii You are limited in area
only The possibilities of an in
tensive, diversified agriculture are I'M
| limited. 1 base this belief on five
years trained observation and actual
experiment in the Islands.
The subject your secretary has as
signed me, though small as far as
farms go, is of such infinite diversity,
| am almost at loss where to begin.
However, my first thought naturally
is: What is a small farm? And in this
rambling talk, | shall consider the
back yard of fifty-foot town lot, an
acre or one hundred acres, agricultur
ally applied, small farm so long as
one dominant feature prevails, and
which 1t seems TO me is an important
factor in our plea for and considera
tion of the small farm in Hawaii
namely, that such lands be owned and
occupied by those who cultivate them,
SO that the cultivator s interests may
he conferred in the permanent up
building of the land, the community
and the state-in word, to establish
homes in the fullest sense of that
sacred term, upon the foundations of
which rests all that is best for our be-
loved Hawaii. This, and more di
versified agriculture than that which
has heretofore prevailed in these
Islands, are the key notes that ring
through the best thoughts that have
been expressed for Hawaii IS future.
The small farm, 1 take it, may be
devoted to a single crop or to divers
ity of crops; to dairying alone; to the
raising of a single breed of livestock,
or to a combination of all these which
we may term mixed farming, so long
directly in the farm and he cooperates
with his employees for their better
ment. they being his in kind, and they
of ambition to become Independent
farmers in time, and he helpful to-
wards that, end, it seems to me, the /
spirit of the small farm is fulfilled al :
most regardless of the area under con-
sideration.
| am deeply in sympathy with the I
thoughts expressed in two recent pa
Ders delivered before Honolulu audi
ances Jared Smith in one of these
says: "Men are worth more than +
acres. Rich lands do not of
themselves make a country rich.
The possession of extensive
areas of land bv a state is of less i'm
oortance than that the land, whether
'ich or poor, should be well popu-
ated.'' This, it seems to me, is espe-
tally applicable to Hawaii, a land so
favored for the domicile
# man.
In his admirable address upon Pater
lalism IN Agriculture, Mr.. Bryant has
pointed out score of dangers to
which our present agricultural staple
S perennially exposed (and which [
would commend for a second 1eading).
Likewise have other able. impartial
hinkers reminded us why the ''small
arm should be encouraged in this
commonwealth.
1t shall be my purpose to consider
ow the small farm may be estab
ished and maintained. Two extreme
Jews seem to prevail in regard to the
mall farm in Hawaii, the one pessi-
listic, believing that nothing but the
reat plantation can be made to pay
ere, the other overly optimistic, or at
east making light of the obstacles in
he way of a successful, many times
diversified agriculture conducted by
he small farmer.
1t seems to me that the truth lies
midway between these views, and that
few have already grasped the situa-
ion and are making the most of it.
| have great respect for and unlim-
ted confidence in the final outcome of
he splendid agricultural struggle I'M
ertaken by such men as the LouissOn
Brothers of Hamakua, Byron Clark of I
Vahiawa, and a number of like men, {
-hO have remained undaunted through :
ears of Encouragement. 1t seems to
lie thew are pointing the way to better
Kings and that their precepts are en-
others to enter similar lines
f endeavOr. These men, even in their
extensive operations,
aust be classed as ''small farmers
ince they fulfill the all-important
1ission of combined cultivator and {
wner of the lands they control. They !
verse;, manage and make these farms
heir homes; their whole interests are ,
entered there. 1t is to their interest
to improve their lands, to ,
plift their employees who are their as
ociates, and to upbuild the community
ather than drag it down. Such men
viii foster every civic Improvement
Ocallv as we'll as at a distance He is
bic, he is on the spot. he knows the
eason why. which the stockholders of
ur large corporations can not know,
T perhaps seemingly may not be to
heir interests to know However we