The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-08-25
Especial Correspondence of the
Advertiser.

Advertiser
SPOKANE, Wash, Aug. 10.-Ralph
S. Hosmer, forester and chairman of
the Territorial Conservation Commits
sion of Hawaii, was one Of the promi-
nent speakers at this afternoon s SEES
sion of the 18th National Irrigation
Congress, beginning August and con-
tinuing to August Il. He chose as his
subject "What Reclamation Means to
Hawaii" and was given the closest
attention throughout, and at the close
of his address he was publicly com
plimented by George Eames Barstow OF
Texas, president of the congress, also
Frederick H. Newell, chief of the
United States Reclamation Service and
scores of other prominent men. Mr..
Hosmer IS argument was SO well re-
ceived by officialdom, which was large
ly represented at this Congress, that
there are reasons to believe the time
cannot be far distant when the Federal
Reclamation Act will be extended to
Hawaii Mr. Hosmer' s address follows
in full:
Hawaii is comparatively recent ad.
dition to the American family, but
there is no one of the states or ter
ritories that takes more vital interest
in the objects for which this Congress
stands Hawaii is an agricultural
country whose prosperity rests on IT.
rigation. The production of sugar cane
is the main industry Sugar production
has grown from small beginnings about
1885 to point where Hawaii now sup
plies more than one-sixth of the sugar
annually consumed by the United
States. Hawaii produced 521, 1923 tons
of sugar, valued at more than. $40,000,'
900 last year. The total area under
cultivation in cane is about 213,00t
acres, of which over half is irrigated
On irrigated land the yield per acre
averages 5A tons per acre as against
three tons from non-irrigated land. The
total investment in irrigation works
in Hawaii amounts to $140 an acre OF
irrigated land.
Irrigation is no new departure in
Hawaii. Long before the coming of
the white man the native Hawaiians
brought water out of the mountains fol-
irrigating their taro fields, often with
no small engineering skill. Of modern
irrigation works the first important
ditch was dug at Lihue, Kauai, in 1857
at a cost of $1,000, twelve years before
the establishment of the noted colony
at Greeley, Colo, and within 10 years
of the beginning of American irriga
tion at Salt Lake City. In the sixties
another ditch, 10 miles long was con
structed on the same island and in 1876
ditch II miles long, with a daily
capacity of 40,000,000 gallons csc
second -feet) was built on Maui at a
cost of $4,000. Other bitches on
Maui soon followed, one 80 miles long
with a daily capacity of 50,o00,000 gal
Ions; another of 10 miles--35 900, 00C
gallons; not to mention numerous small
Ter enterprises.
Since the annexation of Hawaii il
1898 as an integral part of the Union
large irrigation works have followed
one another in rapid succession, two OF
the most important being the Olokele
Ditch on Kauai, 13 miles long, of which
S miles are rock tunnels T feet high
by Z feet wide, daily capacity, 60,000,.
coo gallons. cost $1,000 and the Koo-
lau Ditch on Maui, 1904, daily capacity
s5,000,000 gallons (127.5 second feet),
cost $444,000. Although only 10 miles
in length this ditch crosses IS valleys
requiring that number of tunnels
through the dividing ridges, running
in length from 500 to 2710 feet.
All of these bitches are fed by sur
face water, the streams being tapped
well up on the mountain slopes that
receive the heavy precipitation from
the moisture laden ade-wind clouds
In many cases the water on its way
to the fields is made to develop power
which is used in turn for pumping
from artesian wells and other low level
supplies. Over $500 horsepower is now
generated in this way and it is estim.
ated that at least three times as much
more could be obtained. In one in
stance on Kauai power is transmitted
for distance of 35 miles.
In Hawaii with the steep, short val
leys and the heavy rainfall to insnre
anything like regularity of flow, it is
| essential that a cover of vegetation be
permanently maintained on the catch
ment basins. This has led to the erea
ton of forest reserves which now ag
gregate in area 545,764 acres, of which
SIS per cent is land belonging to the
Territory In Hawaii forestry and ir
rigation go hand in hand, Hawaii be
ing one of the eleven states and terri
tories of the Union to employ profes
sionally trained men in her forest ser
vice
Fully as important as the water go
| from the surface is that obtained from
artesian sources, particularly as mucl
of the latter is lifted by pumps from
/ 500 to 500 feet A recent authoritative
statement of the water resources of tn,
| Eva Basin on Oahu shows that from
drainage area of approximately Is
/ square miles there is daily draft o
| .t16.509,00o gallons or 625 seeond-feet
I'rhis is equivalent in round numbers t.
$50 billion gallons year. or 459, 13'
| acre-feet. In terms of the mainlan'
!! this quantity of water would nearl,
| half fill the Roosevelt Dam, while tn
| area from which it is impounded rs
square miles) is but 1-42 of the water
shed of the Salt River project.
H. The total area of the Hawaiian Is
/ lands is approximately 4,100,000 acre
644e. square miles1. The area unde
cultivation in cane aggregates 213,00
do1-a1oY, Tho irYio,a+oI nor