AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES.
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. 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, which will be treated
under the head of Agricultural possibilities.
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.
On page 32 will be found an estimate of the cost of establishing a
75-acre coffee plantation from the first to the seventh year.
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 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. 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
15,000 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 Sansevieria have been experimented with, but without any
distinct influence upon the trade output.
The cultivation of pineapples is a very 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 up 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 slice to his
income, just as the juice of the maple adds an increase to the farmer of
the Eastern States. 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 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 elsewhere.
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 land is here, the climate is here;
it only requires brains, a small capital and energy to realize such
comfort and independence as can not be realized in old countries, in
one-fourth of the time.