241 



In a recent letter from the Rev. William M. Jefferies is in- 

 cluded the prospectus of a series of lectures which he is about to 

 deliver. In a two years' tour of the world Dr. Jefferies visited 

 Europe, Egypt, A;rabia, India, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, 

 China, Korea and Japan, and finally spent some months in Ha- 

 waii. He is therefore peculiarly fitted to pass judgment upon 

 the islands and to compare them with other countries. He does 

 so in the following terms : 



"When the world awakens to the realization of the fact that in 

 Hawaii fifteen tons of sugar can be raised on an acre, as conir 

 pared with two tons in Louisiana ; that this most charming spot 

 on all the earth — where religion and education unite to produce a 

 most charming social, life — has palatial hotels that are unsur- 

 passed by those to be found anywhere ; that its volcanoes, extinct 

 and active, are the greatest on the earth ; that the opening of the 

 Panama Canal will make Hawaii the 'Port of Call' between the 

 Orient and the Occident ; then it will flock — 'as doves to the win- 

 dows' — to these romantic islands, where the sun shines every day 

 of the year, and where health and happiness combine with pecuni- 

 ar}^ profits to make the life there singularly ideal." 



THE SOY BEAN. 



The Soy bean is cultivated extensively in China and Japan 

 and is used for food in tb.e form either of a sauce, or the seeds 

 are compressed into a paste or cake. Soy is said to enter largely 

 into the composition of many ^^imerican and European sauces. 

 After the preparation of the sauce the exhausted cake 'mass 

 supplies an excellent food for cattle. The plant is used 

 largely for fodder and is also valuable as a green manure. 

 The cultivation of the Soy bean is simple and is remarkal^le for 

 the short time in which it matures its crop. The plants are said 

 to blossom when a month old, and the crop is picked in from six 

 to eight weeks after the seeds are sown. In view of the enormous 

 quantities of Soy imported intO' Hawaii there seems to be a profit- 

 able field for the growth of the bean in these islands. 



