The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-05-04

Coffee Trade Journal of New York
for August, 1907, as illustrative of the
amount of coffee produced and the
cost of production.
The annual output of coffee in the
Hawaiian Islands is from $4,000 to
$4,000 bags exported to the mainland !;
1900 to 1000 bags consumed in Hawaii.
The annual value for five years, 1901,
1906, ranged from $4,000 TO $3.50 600
The total acreage under cultivation
is about $500 acres The average
yield is about $50 pounds per acre.
The average cost OF production is
from II cents in 1901 to I l-2 cents in
1906, The average selling price is
10 - cents - ,..-. So.
! wish to bear witness to the fact
that what is known as the Kona cot
fee | consider the best favored coffee
| ever drank, 1t is grown on the ISL
and Hawaii The very best retails in
Honolulu for 25 cents per pound,
roasted The coffee men look with
green eyes upon their protected broth
ers in the sugar industry, feeding so
sumptuously at the protected crib,
and point out with some snow of rea-
son that theirs is an infant industry
while the sugar trust is n great giant
bestriding the word, But as one man
remarked, THAT is the way with pro
lection: it protects those who don't
need it and those who do need 1t,
don't get any" 1t is pointed out that
/ a duty of cents per pound would
! yield about $4,000 per acre protection.
duty of five cents would be prohib-
| tive to foreign competition, and
| would lead to the investment OF
/ 500, 600. 600 OF outside capital in the
| islands during the next five years
The next most promising industry
is the growing of pineapples. 1t also
4 is an infant Industry and growing.
/ May it be like the little stone out OF
the notwithstanding to grow until
| it fills the world. Such delicious pines
| | never tasted elsewhere They have
none of that stringy, woody tibers so
| common to the Florida pineapple.
They literally melt III ones mouth,
| at least a lot of them melted in my
mouth, and | long for more. Such
fruit has the world for market.
Where they can't ship the green fruit
! they can send the canned. There is
where they have the advantage OF the
orange grower. If we could can our
oranges we would have the world by
| the tail.
Considerable rice is raised on the
! islands by the Chinese. Rice land
rents with water for from $40 to $50
per acre They raise two crops year
and about two tons per acre for the
season is the average. 1t sells gen.
orally for $50 per ton. 1t has to be
grown in the water and no one but
Chinese or Japanese will do such
work
was astonished at the lack of horti-
i cultural development in the islands
Practically all the oranges and lemons
consumed are shipped from Califor-
mia and must be for many years &c
come. They claim they can grow or
anges successfully on the islands but
doubt it, All the trees / saw were
scraggly and sickly looking The
fruit had a dark, rusty color and while
it was Sweet and fairly juicy, it was
full of rag and uninviting. 1t could not
be sold in the market here at all.
Certainly this generation need not
fear competition in oranges from that
source. The one fruit such as we
grow, that strikes me as having the
greatest future, is the grape. I found
them ripening in midwinter on the
vines, and was assured that they
could be produced in large quantities
in the winter season. If that is so
there seems to me there would be
no limit to the market on the main
land, for grapes shipped fresh from
the vines i'm the winter time Guavas
grow wild and bear heavily; some
of them are as large as lemons. The
/
into jellies and jam for the market
They cannot, or at least they do not
grow apples, pears; cherries or plums
on the islands. | saw field Of al
falfa which looked fine and | feel salts
fled it would do well, yet nearly all
the feed used is shipped from the
coast Aside from the pineappes and
bananas, the tropical fruits, proper
did not appeal to me. had heard
much of how delicious was the mango,
and the alligator pear but they seem
ed to me to be almost tasteless Sucn
fruit was just beginning to ripen
when we came away | paid ten cents
for an alligator pear "A few days be-
fore | left. | took "A bite and gave It
up. Our Chinese cook said he would
make a cocktail of it, and for us to
! try that Well, of course | knew what
a cocktail was like in Riverside and
| NJ e Ia, ,,r