The Hawaiian gazette., 1908-06-05

to the eastern markets is worth a:
high as 5000 per ton. Although this |:
strictly an Infant industry as com
pared with what it promises to be
even now the annual yield brings 9
good half million of hard cash into tbs
islands.
Bananas grow in Hawaii in great
abundance but as yet there is little
market for them. Potatoes do not
thrive well, but there is a eady
market for all that can be produced
The Agricultural Experiment Station
lat Honolulu finds that a species of rot
holds down the yield. The station is
trying to get the laborers on the sugar
plantations interested in the growing
of silk worms. 1t is pointed out that
| IL the families of these laborers, in
Guiding the children, can be Brought
to the point of giving their attention
to this work it will very materially
augment the income of the household
and tend to give stability to the labor
| ing class. 1t is hoped that attending
silk-worms will be made a side issue
here like the American hen is made a
SIDE issue on the farms of the United
States. Melons do not thrive very well.
In Hawaii they have little beetle
known as the melon bug which is as
fatal to melons, cantaloupes, pumpkins,
squashes and eucumbers as the tsetse
fly is to horses in Africa. The expert
ment station is trying to produce mel
ons that will be immune to this deadly
insect.
Rice offers an opportunity for money
making. A Chinaman was asked wheth-
er he made any money growing rice.
He replied that he grew two crops a
year. One paid the expenses of both
and he put the returns from the sec
ond crop into his pocket-only the
Chinaman didn't say it quite that way.
Cotton growing promises to be prof.
table industry in the future. Expert
ments have been made which show
that grade of sea island cotton can
be grown which compares favorably
with that of South Carolina, both in
grade and in yield A Peruvian cotton
has been found which fourishes in Ha-
wall and yields excellent returns.
Coffee is the poor man s crop in Ha-
wall. 1t grows in the high, cool re-
gions of the islands. 1t does not re-
quire expensive machinery either to
grow or to prepare for market. Neither
does it deteriorate with age, but rather
improves. 1t is cash crop and can be
drawn against as soon as single bag
reaches the market. The yield is high
and the returns sure. while the trees
themselves are exceptionally free from
disease. Twelves acres of coffee land
have been known to yield twelve tons
of coffee, although good crop is a
thousand pounds an acre. One man can
attend to twenty acres except at pick
ing time. Pickers are paid fifty cents
per hundredweight of berries brought
to the mills. Women are the best
pickers and pick some 200 pounds
day Children are employed to pick
the lower branches, so that STOPPING is
almost eliminated. The annual crop is
valued at about a third of a million
dollars, some $4,000 acres being devoted
to it. Nearly all of Hawaii's coffee
goes to the mainland, of the United
States the greater part being used on
the Pacific Coast. 1t is mild in type
and has a. very different flavor from
the heavy South American coffees
which find such favor in the States.
The rubber industry in Hawaii is still
in the experimental stage, but experts
believe the opportunities for profit are
going to be large. Preliminary expert
ments by the government indicate a
high yield from even young trees. Over
AGO. 900 rubber trees have been planted
in the islands and still other plantations
are being established. The increasing
demands and the INADEQUATE supply of
rubber in the commercial world makes 7
the price of this commodity a very at
tractive proposition to the planter. But
rubber growing is business which re-
quires scientific knowledge and which
yields slow returns. 1t is not inviting |
to the small farmer.
Experiments with tobacco show that
grades which compare favorably with
the best that Cuba and Brazil have to
offer can be grown on Hawaiian soil.
Hawaiian tobacco can come into the
United States duty free, and therefore
has an enormous advantage over that
Of Cuba and other countries. With this
advantage, and an equally good grade
Of leaf to offer, Hawaii tobacco growers
certainly stand to win big returns from
their labors.
Hawaii is not the place for the mon
,yless man who expects to grow rich
oy tilling the soil. The farmer in these
stands faces vastly different conditions
rom those he encounters in the cotton
ields of Texas or the corn fields of
iowa. This is seml-tropical country
md the methods of agriculture differ
is widely from our own as our climate
liffers from that of Hawaii. The set
Ter who comes here must have enough
noney to buy his land, to employ his
abor, and to live from to to four years
While waiting for his first crop. There
re hundred little things he will have
o do which require that patience which
ONES only with the consciousness of a
'alance in the bank On the other
and, he who comes here with the nee
ssary capital and the required patience
nds awaiting him an opportunity that
) probably not equaled by any spot on
he globe. And if he be a citizen of
he United States he will receive
'elcome from his compatriots here that
ill warm the cookies of his heart.
Hawaii needs farmers. She must
ave American citizens. She wants
,me of that conquering blood to which
If western prairies and mountains