The Hawaiian gazette., 1916-12-26
PITY>A POOR ~ ~.
HOMESTFADFR
HIS Ii E Is LONG BATTLE
GOVERNMENT
GIVES NO AID
(By JARED O, sMITH

W.,
through one rainy season in Hawaii be.
comes so Overgrown with p"stilential
weeds that much unproductive labor
must be spent upon 1t, merely to create
a seed bed. Left one year uncropped,
guava and lantana, and weedy vines
and creepcrs unnamed and mumberless,
creep into the fields In three wears
all trace Of guilty alton lapscs-M Mother
Earth has taken back what man would
have wrested for his own.
The battle with weeds is more costly
than the battle with bugs, after the
crops are planted and the real business
of gruTing things commences. The
curse Of "smull farming" in the sub.
tropics is keeping the land clean be-
tween crops, more than it is the iniduit-
GUS land laws, lack of TRANSPORTATION.
or want of knowledge of good methods
of farming. Tn" average Japanese or
other small farmer knows what he
would like to do to get his land ready
for planting. His question is, how
shall he live while he is doing this pre-.
lIminary work IF preparation.
For the benefit Of the city ,dwellcr who
only knows gua.a as jelly or charcoal,
; if tn, farmer falls heir to homestead
well overgrown with the parent shrub
/ from which jrll and char NAV be ex.
traeted, it will cost him from $50 to
$50 hours Of difficult manual labor 70
clean and clear an acre of land. Trans
lated into "lnbor days" this would
mean from three to five weeks hard
work, or from eighteen to thirty.Rve
ten'hour days, Just to clean his acre
patch and get ready to plant something.
Now, thirtyGve dollars would buy an
acre Of farm land outright in good
many countries, but in Hawaii the
"Guava Hom"stcadcr' is merely px.
pected to spend this paltry sum, in his
own or another man 3 work, without
acquiring title, mis- tenure depending on
the payment of annual rents and taxes.
A Year Of ,GTlbbing
That preliminary expense, translated
back into time, would mean that if the
nOmeBteader had been endowed with n
ten'aGre farm and had no capital
other than hlS own labor, it would take
MIN full year to un.guava the hand,
working more Sundays than is good for
any man WHO rellglously puts in six
Jays week at hard toll.
The question has been much discus.
Sed, how many acres SHOULD a home.
| Steader have. II is more important 70
know what crops can be grown on a
Hawaiian acre that will return values
over and above the cost of preparation,
rent, taxes house, water tank, tools,
seed, planting, cultivation, poisons for
| pests, fertilizers TO make the crops
grow, and then the harvest, and the
| preparation Of the crop for market. and
transportation ITO market. Even then,
there are selling charges to be borne
| by the small farmer.
The problem is by nU means as simple
Us Governors, land commissioners, army
| officials, and publici6ts interested in the
welfare Of the land would have you be.
Iicvc. The much talked at and about
= small farmrrs' has more difficult
problem to srlve than these gentlemen.
whose living expenses are assured Your
Backbone of the land has no certainty
N to the morrow, for drought and
rood. pests, fire or his neighh0rS' eat.
lie, or the cunning of the buyer Of his
rroducc when 1t finally reaches the
market. may rob him of the means to
pay back the costs of production.
| 'hrr" j. NO pay.checK at the end Of
the month for your homestcader as
mere Is tor his official critics.
Army Demands Impractical
And hence it comes about that the
small farmer has done exact what thc
| ilv merchant dnCs-fOHOwed the Lines
Of least resistance. Army quurtcrmas.
'crs say the Hawaiian small farmer
| hould grow potatoes, but the army
contracts spccify that the potatoes
must he of u certain definite shape and
measurement, without cuts, bruises, or
blemishes free of soil and DIRT, and
| , va. AS II matte of common know
| ledge potatoes do not grow that way,
ia IIuMan or amy other lUhd. IMr
army buyers know this as certainly as
the farmer.
The army buyers do not want pOt0
toes just as they come from the farm.
"hal they demand are the fancy as,
sorted potatoes cullCG -.Om the crops
| grown by a hundred farmers. Also,
they want potatoes at the lowest con.
tract prices, thirty days supply from
one mun. AS has been remarked, il
| Hawaii were 10 be blockaded, the army
would have to forego potatoes and eat
rice, which every Island born white
| man knows is better than potatoes,
anyway. Until that blockade comes,
however the army will PROUDLY con.
tinue to demand, its spuds, and ais"
continue to scold the small farmer for
not raising them.
With beans, onions, hay, oats, bacon,
fresh meat, eggs, poultry, and multi
plicity of things the Army says the
small farmer must grow for it, the
plain facts are that the Army is not
interested in seeing to it that the farm
rr receives living wage in payment
for his labor. Nor is the Governor Of
Hawaii.
Not all homestrads" are guavR.in.
tested The gurvu likes rich soil aud
hence guuNa land has often been
thought little too good to waste on
the homestrudcr. Some hOmeStrudS
have only hnlama, solomon s perch,
bOnduc,' HilO rrass, mHnienic, jO.ii,
keuli, AND rocks. Don't forget the
rocks. Some homestead lands have no
water; others NJ fences; others no
roads. There is always some good neg
utlvr reason why certain lunLs are IN
the homestead class.
irhnvn at nr ,U,n1v 1,rvns D,uv rn-