410 KKl'OK'l' (»K oKFICK (>K KXl'KRLMKNT STATIONS. 



was c'st!il>li>lu'(l (lining' a hooin has worked aj^ainst llic siiocoss of the 

 iiidustrv. At the present time a far tifreater area of colYee is in hearing 

 than th"re e\-er was (hii'ino- the pahniest days of the eofl'eci excitement 

 in Kona and Olaa. b'uilhermoi'e, notwithstanding" the remarkahk; 

 fall in pri('(\^', ther(> are still a niind)er of j)lantation.s which are n)akino- 

 money out of tiie coli'ee husine.ss. One of the most .serious mistakes 

 made at the time of the attempt to estal)lish tliis industry was one that 

 has l)eon made in ahnost evei'y new ii'riiration district of the Pacific 

 coast. Instead of jrettin<>' in a class of men who had previously made 

 their livino- from some form of a<>ricuUure or horticulture, literature 

 was circulated all over the world that created the impression that 

 here was ji golden opportunity where a man with no kncnvledge of 

 agriculture whatever could make a fortune simply hy ])lanting his 

 trees and letting- them grow. Agriculture in sul)tropical regions has 

 just as many draw hacks as in the temperate zone. Skill and a certain 

 amount of knowledge in i-egard to the growth of })lants, methods 

 of cultivation, j^runing. the use of fertilizers, and the treatment of the 

 soils, are equally as valuable attributes of the plantei- in tlie 'I'ropics 

 as elsewhere. Tlie boom period of the coffee industry in Hawaii is 

 past. The remarkable thrift and vigor of the coffee trees, the enor- 

 mous crops of berries, yielding coffee of a high ({uality, indicate that 

 if the cultivation is pursued under business methods as much profit 

 can be made with this crop here as in any other land. The men 

 who are still succeeding in coffee are not only good farmers but 

 business men as well. There is probably no occupation in which the 

 union of these qualities of knowdedge of agriculture and of business 

 methods is more necessary than in the management of any kind of a 

 plantation in the Tropics. While it is the oft-expressed opinion of 

 a great man}- j)eople that coli'ee can not be growMi at a profit in these 

 islands as long as the product sells for less than 12 cents a pound, 

 nevertheless there are a num])er of planters who realize a fair rate of 

 interest upon their investment when at least a portion of their crop 

 is marketed at as low as 0^ to T cents per pound. (PI. XV, fig. 2.) 

 The hope for the rehabilitation of the coffee industry lies not so nmch 

 in securing a ])ounty as in cr(>ating for our really very superior 

 product an individual market in the United States. If the Hawaiian 

 coffees can ))c marketed as Hawaiian coffee, without l)lending or mixing 

 them with the inferior grades of Central American or Brazilian coffee, 

 it will not be very long before the superiority of our product will 

 create a market for every ton which the islands can produce. Those of 

 our planters who have been most successful have applied to the culti- 

 vation of this crop the same care and knowledge of conditions that 

 the sugar planters have applicKl to the cultivation of sugar cane. The 

 planters have evolved a method of cultivation entirely suited to local 



