The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1908-01-08
AS Near Perfection"
AS Anything Mundane
SOME rRosEPoErRY ABOUT HAWAII by JOHN wooLLEY-rhE
EIGHT LITTLE pRoscENuM BOXES OF THE PACIFIC THEA
HAWAIIAN COFFEE The BEST THAT GRows-A CART
RIDGE or COOL LIQUID sun SHINE"

You know. but queer II is supposed
to possess marked peptic qualities and
a sanguine temperament, like prunes.
At any rate, it u.s. with practice, a
pleasant and wholesome fruit or vege-
table, or melon, or imitation, and the
trees are like carvings, with their Gu
riously indented trunks and gorgeous
leaves
The best fruit of the islands IN my |
opinion is the avocado. 1t is not an
Imitation Of anything and it has mol
peers i'm its class II is unknown here
by its right name and is called alli-
gator pear for no reason that is APP
parent. Some Of the fruit is pear
shaped, but at least as much of it oval
like a young watermelon. Some isl
notified green in color and some a
brownish purple. 1t is irregular in
size but on an average about the size
pint cup would be if pressed into
the same form. In the center is a
large seed the size of a horse chestnut.
When on shaking the pear the seed
is heard to rattle it is ready to be- eat
en-. Divided in halves and the seed
removed it spreads before one a stiff,
yellow custard, which, with a dash OF
vinegar and some olive oil becomes
what l should venture to call fruit
mayonaise, richer than ripe olives
and more delicious. The avocado sea-
son is just over.
Do you ask your grocer for Hawaii
an coffee when you order your grocer
les? Do you know that it is the best
coffee that grows? The unutterably
silly labor laws make it rather I'M
profitable crop, and the supply is far
from equal to the demand on that ac-
count. The coffee tree is to all intents
and purposes a cherry tree, whose
cherries grow along the stems and rip
en- at different times-a ripe and a
green cherry standing side by side.
The picking must, of course, be done
by hand, and unless the farmer has a
large family or cheap hired labor, such
as is impossible in a sparsely settled
territory, with few roads and no rail-
roads, he can't afford to grow coffee
However there is a revival in coffee
farming, and as sugar becomes less
profitable, as it is sure to, coffee Will
become q profitable crop for small
farmers, of which there are as yet toe
few in this territory.
lust now we are having a pineapple
boom. This beautiful crop is easily
grown without irrigation, easily gath
cred and easily converted into money
at the canneries, of which numDOI
have been erected and more are under
wav on paper, or in fact. In pines 90
as in coffee, these islands lead the
world, as to quality A big ripe, juicy
Hawaiian pine comes as near being a
cartridge of cool, liquid sunshine, as
anything could be.
Pineapples offer special inducements
to the small farmer. Five acres OF
frst-class pineapple land convenient
to a cannery would cost say $1,000 One
man can easily tend that much lane
planted to pineapples. The crop never
fails and runs from eight to thirty-tvt
tons to the acre. This years price FOL
the fruit is $25 to $27 a ton, delivered
at the cannery. 1t costs say, $l2 a tor
to produce the crop and market it
which certainly looks well on paper
The start is made by planting thu
suckers from old plants in rows thre
> feet apart, and three feet apart in thu
: rows. The first harvest is eighteel
, months after the planting and two o
: three crops are grown from one set
; ting. The second crop is often bette
, than the first but the third is not t
q be relied on. Each plant bears thre
s or four suckers The old plant
9 thrown away and the suckers set i
. their places. The surplus suckers fin
ready sale at SIS to SIS a thousand.
o If one has not the capital for buyin
q he can lease excellent land in terms @
q twenty years at 81 an acre the frs
. year, $500 the second, IS the third an
. $3.50 for the remainder of the tern
. Nothing ails the proposition as a poo
mans chance if he once gets here an
= is not too ethereal to work A col
: tage costs little. The merest sned
= all that is necessary in the way of
;, barn and the dwelling, in pinch, ca
: be made very pretty and very comfort
able for a fairly substantial song.
have a friend, whose health failed l
Office work and left him with a mos
discouraging outlook, but he went u
twenty miles from Honolulu an
bought, with borrowed money, seve
+ acres of land and set it to suckers. II
Z has just sold his second crop adVaI
n tageously and his debt is melting ava
like a spring snow and his health
e sound as a nut. He is prejudiced !
S favor of pineapple growing for me
:, who have leaned over a desk unit
i they can't tell backache from stomac
:, ache, or either of them from an owe
e draft at the bank.
a The incorporated hog has come @