The Hawaiian gazette., 1909-08-27
HOSMER'S ADDRESS AT
THE IRRIGATION CONGRESS

Advertiser
SPOKANE, Wash, Aug. l0.-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 ses-
sion of the 18th National Irrigation
Congress, beginning August 9 and con
tinuing to August IA. 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 II. Newell, chief of the
United States Reclamation Service and
scores of other prominent men. Mr..
Hosmer s argument was so well re.
Neived by ofiicialdom, which was large
~ represented at this Congress, that
there are reasons to believe the time
cannot be far distant when the Federal
Reclamation Act win be extended to
Hawaii. Mr. Hosmer' IS address follows
in full:
Hawaii is a comparatively recent ad.
dition to the American family, but
there is no one of the states OF ter
ritories that takes more vital interest
in the objects for which this Congress
stands. Hawaii is an agricultural
country whose prosperity rests on ir-
rigation. The production of sugar cane
is the main industry. Sugar production
has grown from small beginnings about
1885 to a point where Hawaii now sup
plies more than one-sixth of the sugar
annually consumed by the United
States. Hawaii produced 52l, 1923 tons
of sugar, valued at more than 100000.
900 last year. The total area under
cultivation in cane is about $4,000
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 $40 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 for
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 rriga.
ton at Salt Lake City. In the sixties
another ditch, 10 miles long was con-
structed on the same island and in 1876
a ditch II miles long, with daily
capacity of 40,000,OOO gallons (6O
secondfeet) was built on Maui at a
cost of $4,000. Other bitches on
Maui soon followed, one 80 miles long,
with daily capacity of 50,000,000 gal
Ions; another of 10 miles-35, 900, 900
gallons; not to mention numerous small
Ter enterprises
Since the annexation of Hawaii in
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, 10 miles long, of which
s miles are rock tunnels Z feet high
by feet wide, daily capacity, 60,000,-
600 gallons, cost 100000; and the Koo-
Tau Ditch on Maui, 1904, daily capacity
s5,O00,0OO gallons (127.5 second.feet),
cost $4,000. Although only 10 miles
in length this ditch crosses SO valleys,
requiring that number of tunnels
through the dividing ridges, running
in length from 800 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 trade.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