Hawaii. Department of Foreign Affairs

“ A very valuable food plant, indigenous to these Islands, is the taro (Colocasia esculenta) . The variety known as dry land taro will grow on land that is moist enough for the coffee trees. The taro is a grand food plant, the tubers containing more nutriment for a given weight than any other vegetable food. The young tops when cooked are hard to distinguish from spinach. The tubers must be cooked before they can be used for food, in order to dissipate a very acrid principle that exists in both leaves and root. ”

“ The bulk of Hawaiian coffee lands is situated in the forests where the land is covered with a dense undergrowth of ferns and vines and there are no pernicious weeds to bother. But soon after clearing, the seeds of weeds are dropped by the birds and are carried in on the feet and clothing of the laborers and visitors. We have no weeds that run to seed in less than thirty days, and if the fields are gone over, once a month, and any weed that can be found pulled up and buried, the work of weeding will be reduced to a minimum. ”

“ A patch of pohas planted in a corner of a garden, will grow and yield a bountiful supply of fruit almost without cultivation.
Pineapples are at home on these Islands; a small plot planted with the best varieties of this king of fruits will keep the table supplied the year round.
Another valuable fruit indigenous to this country is the Papaia (Carica papaya) . This fine fruit can be raised in enormous quantities and is a most fattening food for pigs and chickens. The tree fruits in eight or nine months from the seed, and thence forward for years it yields ripe fruit every 39 month in the year. ”

“ 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 has an aroma and flavor far superior to that cultivated in Mexico and Central America. In the uplands of Hawaii and Maui potatoes can be and 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. ”

“ Kauai is called the "Garden Island," it is so well watered and so luxuriant in vegetation. The Island is at present largely devoted to the cultivation of sugar. Rice also cuts a considerable figure in the agricultural production of Kauai. That it can produce coffee is undoubted, but there is a timidity about embarking in the industry, because some forty years ago the experiment of a coffee plantation was tried, and owing to misjudgment of location and soil, failed. ”

“ Numerous suckers spring up from around the decaying stem and bear fruit in their turn. One-half an acre planted with bananas would not only furnish a large family with an abundance of delicious and nutritious fruit, but would also yield a large supply of feed for pigs, chickens and other stock.
The tea plant (Camellia Thea) grows well in this country and yields a tea of good quality. It is hardly likely that it will become an article of export from this country, as we cannot compete with the very low prices paid for labor in the great tea countries, India, Ceylon, and China. ”

“ The young trees are cut off about six inches above the ground, they are then taken up and the lateral roots trimmed close to the tap root. The thready end of the tap root is cut off and the stump is ready to plant. In some cases the young plants are taken up, from under the wild trees, and planted just as they are. This method can be dismissed at once as the worst possible method of planting the coffee tree. The very best plants are strong healthy nursery plants, that is, plants that have been grown from the best seed in a properly prepared nursery. ”

“ Cocoa (Theobroma Cacao) is the tree that produces the fruit from which chocolate is made. It grows and bears well in moist humid districts, and many of the coffee planters are setting out numbers of the trees.
There are many other economic plants that are well suited for culture in this country. The country is entering on a new era, and as the lands become settled and population increases, many small cultures will become possible, which will afford many persons the opportunity of making an easy living in a land of eternal summer. ”

“ There is no district, however remote, in which there is no school. The only people who cannot read and write are those who come from abroad. Those born in the Islands are compelled by law to take advantage of the education offered. Besides the common school education, opportunities are given at various centers for a higher education equivalent to the grammar grade of the United States, and in Honolulu a high school and collegiate course can be obtained at a small cost. ”

“ During the third year new secondaries will grow from the places where the former secondaries grew. Sometimes two will grow from one bud, they should all be removed, the trees being gone over two months, but at the last handling before blossoming time, which varies greatly with the elevation above sea level, enough of these new secondaries should be left to make wood for the fifth year's crop. From this time on the coffee planter should be able to point out the wood on which the present and the next year's crop will be borne, and it is this wood and that only, that should be allowed to grow. ”

“ The tubers never spoil in the ground, in fact the soil is the very best storehouse for them. However if left for two or three years the tubers grow very large and tough.
Bananas, in great variety, are grown in all parts of the Islands where there is sufficient moisture. Any land that will grow coffee will grow bananas. The yield of fruit from this remarkable plant is something astonishing. It commences to bear fruit in a little over one year from the time of planting. The stem decays after the formation of a bunch of fruit ”

“ The Kona district has given the coffee product a name in the markets of the world.
On this Island are now situated numerous sugar plantations. Coffee employs the industry of several hundred owners, ranging from the man with 200,000 trees to him who has only an acre or so. There are thousands upon thousands of acres at present uncultivated and only awaiting the sturdy arms and enterprising brains of the men of the temperate zone to develop them. ”

“ The mainstay of the Hawaiian Islands 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. ”

“ But it can be grown for home consumption, and there is no reason why every coffee planter should not have a patch of tea growing on his land. An eighth of an acre, planted out in tea plants, would yield more tea than could be consumed by a large family; the work of cultivation and preparation is light and easy and could be done by women and children. ”

“ For a 75-acre plantation, one acre of ground will more than supply all the plants required. It is always desirable to have a greater number of plants than is needed to just plant the acreage the plantation is to be, for after the fields are planted some of the plants may get injured from dry weather and require replacing with plants from the nursery. Any surplus left, after the trees in the fields are well established, can be sold to some later planter, who will find it to his advantage to purchase good nursery plants for his first planting and thereby save one year of time. ”

“ The tabu system covered the entire daily life of the people with a vast network of minute regulations and penalties. Thus, it was tabu for men and women to eat together, or even to have their food cooked in the same oven. Women were forbidden to eat pork, bananas, cocoanuts, or turtle and certain kinds of fish, on pain of death. There were certain tabu days when no canoe could be launched, no fire lighted, and when no sound could be made, on pain of death. ”

“ Both the king and his advisers saw that in order to maintain a permanent government it was necessary to combine both the native and foreign elements together in one common organization, and to make the king the sovereign not merely of one race or class, but of all. During the next few years the executive departments of the Government and the judiciary were organized by a group of men of remarkably high character and ability. ”

“ All other growth should be removed as before up to the time of blossoming for the fourth year's crop. This may be estimated as follows: There should be at least twenty-four primaries that have on each of them say, four bearing secondaries. At thirty berries to each secondary, the yield would be close to three 31 pounds of clean coffee to each tree. This again has been exceeded in this country for four year old trees, but it must be borne in mind, that in order to obtain these results, proper cultivation, handling and pruning must be done. ”

“ The planter must decide for himself which of the two methods he will pursue. However, it can be said in the case of those who only cut and fell, in a few years everything, trees, vines and ferns rot down and greatly increase the fertility of the soil. The next thing is to lay out the land for the digging of the holes where it is intended to set out the young trees. There is a wide diversity of opinion as to the proper distance apart to plant coffee trees. ”

“ The western slopes of Haleakala, the main mountain of Maui, are covered with small farms where are raised potatoes, corn, beans and pigs. Again, here, thousands of acres are lying fallow.
HONOLULU.
On Oahu is the capital, Honolulu. It is a city numbering thirty thousand inhabitants and is pleasantly situated on the south side of the Island. The city extends a considerable distance up Nuuanu Valley and has wings extending northwest and southeast. It is a city of foliage. Except in the business blocks, every house stands in its own garden, and some of the houses are wonderfully beautiful. ”

“ While our main industries, sugar, coffee and rice, are being vigorously carried on, new products are not lost sight of. Experiments 42 are in progress that promise to greatly diversify our industries and increase the number of our exports.
Several fiber plants are receiving attention, particularly the Sisal Hemp (Agave Sisalana) and Sansevieria or bow string Hemp. The Sisal plant will grow and flourish on lands that are too dry for any other cultivation. Many thousands of the plants have been introduced and at least one plantation is being set out. ”

“ During this third year the tree will blossom and bear the first or maiden crop. In some cases the tree will blossom in the second year, but it is a wise plan to rub all the blossoms off, as it only weakens the tree to bear a crop at such an early age. It is of the utmost importance that in the first crop, as well as in all future crops, the tree should not be overburdened with a superabundance of growing wood. ”

“ If the weather is at all dry it is a good plan to mulch the surface of the bed with dry grass or fern leaves. The soil should be kept moist, and if there is not sufficient rain the beds must be watered. In six or seven weeks the seeds should sprout and show above ground. The mulching should now be moved from over the plants and arranged in the rows. It has been the practice of some planters to plant the seed much closer than six inches apart, but it will be found that plants at six inches apart can be more easily and safely transplanted than from close planted beds. ”

“ There are many minor details connected with the care of the coffee tree which would occupy too much space to describe here, and which the coffee planter can easily learn as he carries on the work of coffee planting. Without doubt coffee planting in this country is destined to become a great industry. We have large tracts 32 of the finest coffee lands in the world, only waiting to be cultivated to make prosperous and happy homes. ”

“ Some planters advocate topping as low as four and a half feet, others at six or seven feet; as a matter of fact the coffee tree will bear fruit if topped as low as one and one half feet or if not topped at all. The only valid reason for topping as low as four and a half feet is for the convenience of picking the crop. Five and a half or six feet is a good height to top a coffee tree on the rich lands of the Hawaiian Islands. In fact the planters should not be guided by the number of feet, but by the number of primaries he desires the tree to carry. ”

“ In point of 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 by those who know what work is, and are willing to put their shoulders to the wheel.
In the Hawaiian Islands a simple life can be lived, and entering gradually upon the coffee industry, a good competence can be obtained long before such could be realized by the agriculturalist 15 elsewhere. However, it is useless to come to the Islands without the necessary capital to develop the land that can be obtained. ”