The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1909-10-26
COTTON MAY Be
KING IN HAWAII
Or. Wilcox Thinks Prospects Are
Very Encouraging in the
Islands.
OURS IS BEST IN THE WORLD
Hawaiian Product Is Superior
to, That Grown in the
South.
OURS IS BEST IN THE WoRLD
(From Thursday Is Advertiser)

waiian Islands and all the world may
come to this Territory for its best
supply of the staple. For nowhere else
in the world, according to statement
made by Doctor Wilcox, director of the
Hawaiian Agriculture Experiment Sta.
ton, before the chamber of commerce,
yesterday, is better cotton grown than
is raised in Hawaii.
We have no need to go to the south.
ern States for out seed, Doctor Wilcox
says, nor is there any necessity of go.
ing to the cotton belt of the United
States to learn methods of cultivation.
Hawaii can raise as good cotton as can
be grown anywhere in the world, and
there is no reason why it should not
become an important article of com.
merce from these islands.
Moreover, cotton growing is adapted
to the small farmer. The man who
has only one acre can do as well in
proportion as the man who has an is.
land barony.
Cotton grown in Hawaii is not sub
iect to the pests that make cotton grow
ing in the southern States a steadily
less profitable venture. The boil wee
vii, the insect that has devastated thou
sands Of acres in the South, is not found
in Hawaii, and cotton wilt is disease
fortunately unknown here.
Doctor Wilcox was introduced to the
chamber of commerce by J. P. Cooke,
who, however, stated that the scien-
! fist needed no introduction to most of
those present.
Doctor Wilcox prefaced his talk by
the statement that he had but few
days before returned from trip
| through the cotton belt of the southern
| States, in which he had visited all the
principal cotton growing areas.
The principal thing the chamber
would like to know, he thought, would
| be what the cotton outlook is as it
appears on the mainland, as that is the
only way of getting any idea of the
marketing possibilities.
Prospects Are Bright.
"The cotton industry he said,
"now looks better than it ever has
before for any country where pests and
the labor problem are not too severe.
Even the newsboy on train on which
I travelled through the South was buy
ing cotton stock. Everybody down
there who is not afraid to talk at all
is talking cotton, and they all say that
the outlook for. cotton is better than
ever before.''
This is due, the doctor said, partly
to the fact that the United States pro-
duces nearly all the cotton that is
grown. OF the total world IS crop last
year of 100000 bales, the United
States produced 100000 bales.
Production Decreasing.
The production of cotton in the
United States is falling off year by
year, and has for some years been de-
creasing about half million bales a
year. This will continue for some time
to come. The yield in other cotton
producing countries, such as South
Africa and Cuba, is not increasing as
it was expected it would.
The falling off in the amount of cot
ton produced in the United States is
due largely to the boil weevil, which
is worse now than it has ever been
before. And there appears to be abso
lutely no possibility of checking its
spread. The only thing that had any
appreciable effect on it this year was
the high temperatures experienced il
, stance, it was pretty well killed out il
Texas, but this was because the Their
I mometer went as high as ia degree
and the weevils were literally cooked
! But such temperatures are not to b.
expected regularly. In few years tn
/ boil weevil will be in the sea islam,
r cotton district along the coast of tn
. Carolinas and Georgia, and will mean
diminution of the crop in that section
Cotton Wilt Spreading.
The cotton wilt, so called, is ais
: getting worse in the sea island eotto
i district, and large areas of the plant
I are absolutely dead. In one district i
. Louisiana, DIR. Wilcox said he saw a
= area of 1000 acres killed this year b.
cotton wilt.
l DIR. Wilcox stated that he had foun
that while some growers in the Sout
Sea district were receiving fancy price
!. for their product ON account of its e1
A cellence, others were getting much les
because they were not adopting prope
methods. Some growers were gettin
y as much as seventy cents poun'
II while others, not Il mile from then
were selling their cotton for ninetee
| Ctnln' bbou INV npNahN
are not taken up very readily. I'll
II growers who are getting the fame
'e prices select their seed; the others d
d not.
II There is nothing that Hawaii ca
learn from the standpoint of cultiVi
tiOn, said DR.. Wilcox, by going ini
the South, Cotton needs thorough sha
m low cultivation. The speaker advise
70 that no one should 30 into cotton n
At loss he has soil that can be 30 cult
waited,
Want Hawaiian Seed.
DIR, Wilcox stated that all the grove
" who looked over the samples no TO,
to from Hawaii wanted to get some
our seed, eve want no seed fro
outside, said the speaker, "We can
get amy better sea island OF Carayopi'
W. cotton than is produced here, Al
% besides, IN getting cotton seed ira
outside, there is always the dang
of importing the boil weeyil VIII