HAWAII EXl'EKIMENT STATION. 409 



not more difficult than tluit in th(> harvest fields or in hundreds of occu- 

 pations which retiuire manual toil in other lands. A successful bet>"in- 

 nint*- in the cultivation of sugar cane bv white farmers, who own and 

 cultivate their own land, has been made in at least two localities in 

 these islands. 



In the Olaa district on the island of Hawaii there are between 60 and 

 7(1 independent landowners who are j»-rowing cane which they sell to 

 one of the near-by plantations. A part of this lunnber emploj' no 

 Asiatic lalK)r whatever, they and the members of their families per- 

 forming^ all the nec(\'^sarv lal)or. Cane is being' grown by some of the 

 members of the W'ahiawa colony on the island of Oahu. It has heen 

 proved at least in these two instances that the white man can perform 

 all of the work required in the cultivation of cane at a profit to him- 

 self in some cases far al)ove the average received from the cultivation 

 of any agricultural crop on the mainland of the United States. 



The successful beginnings made in these two instances will undoubt- 

 edly grow to greater proportions. Such a change nmst of necessity 

 be o-radual. The entering wedge must be the establishment of colo- 

 nies, the members of which can sup])ly to one anotlnn- that degree of 

 social intercourse which is retjuisite in any American connnunity. 

 The prevailing conditions are such that individual farmers scattered 

 here and there over the Territory would probably not succeed, but 

 with colonies of sufficient m.nn])ers, so that there can be at once estab- 

 lished the schools and churches and social organizations to which our 

 people are accu.^tomed, they would thri\e and prosper as well in these 

 islands of the Pacific as in any of the mainland States or Territories. 



COFFEE. 



As stated in my previous annual ri^ports, there is a ver}' large area 

 of land in this Territory which might be devoted to this crop. At a 

 moderate estimate ther(> are 85(),<tU() acres of mountainous land between 

 an elevation of 2,()t»(> and 5,000 feet on Avhich cotfee would tliri\e. The 

 quantity of Hawaiian-grown product now exported from the Territory 

 amounts to about 1 .2(H) tons, worth $250,000. In the period from 1890 

 to 1S9T the cort'ee industi'y received great impetus in these islands 

 because of th<> high price of this product. Fulh' 10,000 acres were 

 |)lanted in cotfee during that time, and much land was undoubtedl}' set 

 out in cotfee orchards which proved to be not well a(lai)te<l to the crop. 

 Nevertheless, in certain districts, especially the llamakua and Kona 

 districts on the island of Hawaii, and in the ^^'aimanalo district on 

 Oahu, the trees have reached a very thrifty stagt^ of development. 

 As a result of the rapid fall of prices in the A'ears succeeding 1896, 

 many of those who had planted extensive areas of cotfee with every 

 expectation of at once accpiiring a fortune were forced to abandon 

 their plantations as improHtabh*. The fact that the cotfee industry 



