V.

Agricultural Resources.

The pamphlet entitled "The Republic of Hawaii," issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Islands in 1896, gives a full account of the agricultural resources of the country, with interesting details as to the coffee industry, from which the following matter is extracted. The main stay of the Islands, it says, has, for the last thirty-five years, been the sugar industry. From this source, a large amount of wealth has been accumulated. But the sugar industry requires large capital for expensive machinery, and has never proved remunerative to small investors. An attempt has been made at profit-sharing, and has met with some success, the small farmer cultivating and the capitalist grinding at a central mill. Of late years, moreover, the small farmer has been steadily developing in the Hawaiian Islands, and attention has been given to other products than sugar.

Rice, neither the European nor the American can cultivate as laborers. It requires working in marshy land, and though on the Islands it yields two crops a year, none but the Chinaman can raise it successfully. A dry-land or mountain rice has been introduced.

The main staple, after sugar and rice, is coffee. Of this, hundreds of thousands of trees have been planted out within the last five years. This is essentially the crop of the future, and bids fair to become as important a staple as sugar. Coffee does not require the amount of capital that sugar does, and it can be worked

remuneratively upon a small area. It is estimated that, at the end of the fourth year, the return from a 75-acre coffee plantation will much more than pay the running expenses, while from that time on, a return of from eight to ten thousand dollars per annum may be realized.

Fruits can also be cultivated to advantage. At present, the banana trade of the Islands amounts to over 100,000 bunches per annum, valued at over $100,000, and the quantity might be very easily quadrupled. The banana industry may be regarded as in its infancy. The export of the fruit is only from the Island of Oahu, but there are thousands of acres on the other Islands of the group which could be profitably used for this cultivation and for nothing else. The whole question of the banana industry hinges on the market. At present, the market is limited.

Limes and oranges can be cultivated and the fruit can be easily packed for export; at present, the production does not meet the local market. The fruits can be raised to perfection. The Hawaiian orange has a fine flavor, and the Hawaiian lime is of superior quality. In the uplands of Hawaii and Maui, potatoes are raised. Their quality is good. Corn is also raised. In these industries, many Portuguese, Norwegians, and others have embarked. Both these products find an ample local market. The corn is used largely for feed on the plantations. The corn is ground with the cob, and makes an excellent feed for working cattle, horses, and mules.

In the uplands, where the climate is temperate, as at Waimea, Hawaii, vegetables of all kinds can be raised; excellent cauliflowers, cabbages, and every product of the temperate zone can be grown to perfection

Cattle raising in so small a place as the Hawaiian Islands does not present great opportunities except for local consumption. Pigs are profitable to the small farmer. In the Kula district of Maui, pigs are fattened upon the corn and potatoes raised in the

district. The price of pork, dressed, is 25 cents per pound in Honolulu and about 15 cents per pound in the outside districts. The Chinese, of whom there are some 20,000 resident on the various Islands, are extremely fond of pork, so that there is a large local market, which has to be supplemented by importations from California.

Attention has lately been given to fiber plants, for which there are many suitable locations. Ramie grows luxuriantly, but the lack of proper decorticating and cleaning machinery has prevented any advance in this cultivation.

Sisal hemp and sanseveira have been experimented with, but without any distinct influence upon the trade output.

The cultivation of pineapples is a growing industry. In 1895, pines were exported from the Islands to San Francisco to the value of nearly $9,000. This has grown up in the last half dozen years. There is every reason to think that canning pineapples for the Coast and other markets can be made profitable.

The guava, which grows wild, can also be put to profit for the manufacture of guava jelly. It has never been entered upon on a large scale, but to the thrifty farmer it would add a convenient addition to his income, just as the juice of the maple adds an increase to the farmer of the Eastern States. Well-made Well-made guava jelly will find a market anywhere. In England, it is regarded as a great delicacy, being imported from the West India Islands. Besides the guava, there are other fruits which can be put up to commercial profit, notably the poha or Cape gooseberry (Physalis Edulis). This has been successfully made into jams and jelly, which command an extensive local sale and should find their way into larger markets.

In fact, outside the great industries of sugar, coffee, and rice, there is a good field for many minor industries which can be carried on with profit.

In the Hawaiian Islands, a simple life can be lived, and enter

ing gradually upon the coffee industry, a good competence can be obtained long before such could be realized by the agriculturist in less-favored countries. However, it is useless to come to the Islands without the necessary capital to develop the land that can be obtained. Between arriving and the time that the crops begin to give returns, there is a period where the living. must be close, and cash must be paid out for the necessary improvements.

THE COFFEE INDUSTRY.

A separate chapter of the pamphlet, "The Hawaiian Islands," is devoted to the coffee industry. There is no finer coffee in the world, it is asserted, than that of the Hawaiian Islands. It requires care and does not produce a crop until the third year, but it remains till the fifth year to make a proper realization upon the investment. In the Hawaiian Islands, coffee grows best between 500 and 2,600 feet above the sea level, though there are cases in which it has done well close to the sea. It requires a loose, porous soil, and does not thrive well in heavy clayey ground which holds much water. Of such heavy land, there is very little in the Hawaiian Islands. The soil is generally very porous.

It is very evident that coffee will thrive and give good results in varying conditions of soil and degrees of heat. In these Islands, it grows and produces from very nearly at the sea level to the elevation of 2,600 feet. The highest elevation of bearing coffee, known in the Islands, is 25 miles from the town of Hilo and in the celebrated Olaa district.

With such a range, it is evident that, in a tropical climate, the cultivation of coffee presents greater opportunities for an investor than other tropical products. For years, it was thought that coffee would only grow to advantage in the Kona district of Hawaii. Practical experiment has shown that it can be grown with success in almost any part of the Islands.

The opening up of the Olaa portion of the Puna district, by a well macadamized road leading from Hilo to the Volcano, may be regarded as the commencement of the coffee industry on a large scale on the Hawaiian Islands. There are now over fifty plantations where six years ago there was nothing but tangled and dense forest. The Olaa land is Government property and can be acquired under the land law. There are still 10,000 acres not taken up. The location is very desirable, as there is direct communication with Hilo by an excellent road and the crop can be readily taken to the shipping point. Indeed, it can not be long before a railroad will be built; when this takes place, a far larger extent of land will be available for coffee growing in this section of the country. The soil in the Olaa district is deep and wonder

fully prolific.

Other portions of Puna also present many fertile lands, and coffee plantations in those parts are coming to the front showing excellent results. A considerable number of investors have opened up coffee plantations in them, all of which are doing excellently. These plantations are, many of them, carried on out of the savings made by workers in Honolulu, who are thus preparing for themselves a provision for their early middle age. On the island of Hawaii are the great coffee districts of Olaa, Puna, Kona, and Hamakua, in each of which thriving coffee plantations are established, while tens of thousands of acres of the very finest lands are yet undisturbed. Government lands in these districts are being opened up for settlement as fast as circumstances will permit.

On the Island of Maui, there is a large area of splendid coffee lands. The extensive land of Keanae belonging to the Government will be opened for settlement as soon as the preliminary work of surveying is completed. On the Island of Molokai, the industry is making progress, and there are several plantations along the leeward valleys. So also on the Island of Oahu, there