74 



to modern husbandry by means of scientific educational institu- 

 tions has only been properly appreciated in comparatively recent 

 times. It has been brought about by a number of different 

 agencies, some of them operating from without and others hav- 

 ing their inception in the industry itself. The cumulative effect 

 of the conditions referred to, taken as a whole, has been to ren- 

 der ever more and more exacting the amount of special knowl- 

 edge and training necessary in the successful agriculturist. The 

 quantity of expert information now demanded is so great that 

 no individual can acquire it from mere personal observation or 

 from serving an apprenticeship in the routine of an ordinary 

 farm. It is therefore necessary that educational institutions 

 be established where the sound practices of modern agriculture 

 may be acquired. To effect this^ recourse must be had to w^ell 

 nigh every department of human knowledge. The geologist, 

 the botanist, and the chemist must be consulted, and physics, 

 physiology and the mechanical arts must alike yield their assist- 

 ance. The laws determining heredity must be investigated and 

 those influencing the perpetuity of beneficial individual traits 

 investigated. The science of bacteriology will be required to 

 teach an understanding of various operations of the dairy which 

 formerly were relegated to chance. The practices of the modern 

 forester must be evoked to render productive sterile wastes and 

 to reclaim areas denuded by the improvidence of a thoughtless 

 generation. 



Of those agencies operating from within which have necessi- 

 tated the application of scientific and other modern knowledge to 

 agriculture, may be briefly mentioned the inherent tendency of 

 all cultivated crops to develop disease or invite the attacks of 

 insect pests, when s;rown upon an unprecedented scale 0:1 

 the sam.e ground for many successive generations. It is 

 not necessary in this country to dwell too long upon the object 

 lesson which has been before it of this phase of the question 

 with regard to our staple industry. In the early history of Ha- 

 waii when sugar cane was only grown in such small quantities 

 as to satisfv the local requirements of the natives, it is improb- 

 able that the plant was attacked to any appreciable extent by 

 either fungoid or insect pests. As the industry has developed, 

 however, and the area of production increased to extraordinary 

 proportions, together with the growth of successive crops upon 

 the same land, the development of special breeds of cane has 

 rendered the crop itself susceptible to the ravages of special 

 disease, and has also facilitated the introduction of enemies 

 from other countries. So -great has been the effect of these on- 

 slaughts that were it not for the prompt and energetic applica- 

 tion of entomological and other scientific methods it is question- 

 able whether a ton of sugar could now be exported from the 

 Islands. With regard to the sugar planter, the enormous ex- 



