244 THE PLANT WORLD 



3. All those wishing to pay the taxes for the current half-year, begin- 

 ning January 1 and ending June 30, 1900, may do so before the 1st of 

 July if they please ; but any mistake in specifying the nature of the land 

 or its extent will be subject to correction when discovered." 



Americans are protesting against the levying of duties upon articles 

 brought here from the United States. If discrimination were made in 

 favor of American merchants all others on the island would fail, and the 

 American company here would have the monopoly ; so that the govern- 

 ment would have no income whatever from the custom house. It is upon 

 our receipts from that source that we expect to pay our school teachers, 

 and if we can not count upon them I do not see how the island govern- 

 ment can be self-supporting. The American officials pay no direct taxes, 

 and goods admitted for the Naval Station are free. 



Saturday, April 7 . — The Yosemite is about to go to Japan to be docked, 

 taking as passengers a number of sick from the hospital, who have been 

 ordered home. We have been having about fifty on the sick-list, a 

 large number for so small a command. Dr. Grunwell, who has been 

 doing fine work among the natives, is much run down and is going 

 to Japan to recuperate. 



The end of the dry season is approaching and the natives are prepar- 

 ing their fields for planting corn on the mesa and the higher parts of the 

 island. The soil in these places is not deep enough to permit ploughing. 

 Near one of my ranches I have been watching the progress of a tobacco 

 plantation. First the seed was sown and shaded under a canopy of coco- 

 nut leaves. Then the seedlings were transplanted into a sort of nursery 

 and shaded. Then they were set out in regular rows in the field, each 

 one shaded by half of a coconut husk. They did pretty well in spite of 

 the dryness of the season. Day after day the women and children carried 

 water for more than a mile to water them, keeping down the weeds 

 between the rows, and examining the plants for tobacco ' ' worms. ' ' The 

 plantation flourished until an epidemic like cholerine made its appearance 

 on the island and almost every native became ill. No deaths resulted, 

 but the poor people were too sick to work, and the tobacco was eaten up 

 almost entirely by the "worms " (sphinx-moth larvae). The rice crop 

 has also proved a failure this year. I admired the energy of the natives, 

 who prepared the fields with great patience, forming the irrigating ditches 

 and setting out the young plants one by one. I expected a good crop of 

 rice, when suddenly the rice fields turned yellow and the plants seemed 

 to sicken. I do not know why. The crop did not pay for the labor 

 expended upon it. Nothing pays on this island so surely as coconuts ; 

 and even these may be destroyed by hurricanes. It is impossible to culti- 

 vate coffee, sugar, or cacao on a great scale, owing to the lack of labor. 

 Each family produces only enough for its own use. There is more than 



