The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-22

As is the case with the large acres
of sugar cane which one sees in max
ing the trip to the volcano, so through
out the group of islands, the agricul-
tuTe is characterized by a one crop syS-
! tenn. Whether it be the principal crop,
cane, or the smaller crops, rice, pine
apples, sisal bananas, coffee, or any
of the other small crops, the area de-
voted to that crop is used year after
year for the same crop. OF a rotation
of crops we see practically nothing in
the Hawaiian islands. This presents
an interesting problem in keeping up
the fertility of the soil. The agricul-
ture is too young to predict at this time
what the consequences will be of the
continuation of this one crop system.
Very heavy manuring with commercial
fertilizers seems at present to suffice
to keep the soil in a high state of pro-
ductiVity. In no other place in the
United States has the trade in COM
mercial fertilizer assumed so great di-
mansions in proportion to the area cul-
tivated- The application of 1000
pounds of high grade fertilizer per acre
each year is not unusual This, of
course, is practical only with big yields
of very valuable crops, and such they
have. If you ask the sugar planter
why he does not put in leguminous
crop, like field peas, on his fields be-
fore replanting to sugar cane, he will
probably answer the cane is too Valu-
able crop TO lose this time. He gains
more by starting his cane crop at once
and buying Chile saltpeter or sulphate
of ammonia to supply the heterogeneous
food for the plants. Potash and phos-
pilates are also extensively applied. In
some places they find the soil some
what sour from the large amount of
decaying vegetation, and they have to
apply lime to correct this acidity. This
is especially true of the pineapple re-
gion at Waiheawa on Oahu The pc
culiar fact. discovered at japanese ex-
pertinent stations, that a certain ratio
must exist between available lime and
magnesium salts for best crop results,
finds illustration in some localities
here, and applications of magnesium
salts met with good results in the crops.
Natural manures are not extensively
produced on the islands, as the stock
raising or dairying industries have not
been much developed. What is pro-
duced is mostly taken by the Chinese
for rice and garden crops. The vol
canic origin of all the soil will natur-
ally produce rich soil, but as yet the
weathering has not progressed far
enough to make much of it available
We have in these islands an excellent
example of young" land, which af
fords an equally attractive study TO the
geologist and agricultural student. In
many places, especially on the young
est of the islands, Hawaii, the layer of
soil is very shallow on the lava rock
which underlies the soil. More recent
flows. as also the present beds of the
craters, are almost completely bare of
any soil 1t seems odd to find a few
pioneers among the native plants VEN
turing out upon these lava beds and
securing a foothold in some corners
and crevices, where hardly a handful
of soil could be scraped together. The
tree fern seems to be about the most
venturesome in this respect On this
same island the streams, though car
rying an abundance of water, have not
eroded very deep canyons. nor eroded
the gulches very far inland and up the
sides of the volcanic cones. 1t thus
happens that the mountains Mauna
Kea and Mauna Loa, are very SYM
metrical cones. On the less steep
slopes of the coast regions. the soil is
usually deep enough to make good SUI
gar cane land Some OF the areas of
shallower soil are put into crops that