75 



tent of the industry, enables him in Hawaii to equip and main- 

 tain a scientific estabhshment, with a corps of expert officials, to 

 combat the evil. With the agriculturist, however, there is often 

 no such recourse and he must often rely upon his own knowledge 

 and experinece to act promptly in matters affecting the very ex- 

 istence of the venture upon which he has invested his capital. 

 Nor is it the large industries which have to assert their ^ell- 

 being by a constant scientific warfare. In some countries, 'as is 

 known to every reader of agricultural history, w^hole industries 

 have been destroyed for lack of promptly instituting scientific 

 remedies when the enemy was yet in its incipient stage. In 

 many instances communities which have become enriched by a 

 successful industry, have become utterly impoverished in a few 

 seasons by the failure of their staple crop under the attack of 

 disease. Coffee, vanilla, the grape vine, and many other indus- 

 tries have both made and ruined the fortunes of countries, and 

 the latter phase has unquestionably l^een due to the lack of proper 

 scientific knowledge, and a lively sense of the impending danger. 

 Referring again to more local conditions, it does not take great 

 observation to discern that even with all our boasted scientific 

 knowledge, the mango crop of the islands is in danger of suffer- 

 ing materially unless the continual application of modern knowl- 

 edge be exerted on its behalf. Our taro crop, essentially a 

 primitive industry and one at first thought which should be im- 

 mune from such dangers as have been referred to, is threatened 

 w^ith more than one disease. The condition of our rice industry 

 was lately so precarious that the co5peration of both local and 

 federal assistance was enlisted to discover suitable remedies 

 to reinstate it among our remunerative agricultural pursuits. It 

 is only by recourse to the accumulated knowledge of the sciences 

 as understood and intelligently applied by modern experiment 

 and practice that a substantial and permanent improvement can 

 be achieved in this industry. But by these helps, an almost 

 double yield of improved grain can be predicted, at a smaller cost 

 than that necessary to produce our present crop. 



The welfare of a rapidly increasing part of our inhabitants 

 is more or less closely associated with the pineapple industry, 

 yet here is a condition of affairs which has obtained before in 

 many countries and which contains wnthin itself the factors for 

 its own destruction from disease. The prompt application of 

 approved methods is necessary to ward off the threatened enemy, 

 and here again we look to science for a solution. Before these 

 onslaughts, the individual, however hardworking, however ener- 

 getic and intelligent, is absolutely helpless, without a scientific 

 training acquired in a modern agricultural college. 



Among the external influences which have been at work to 

 accumulate the sum of knowledge necessary to success- 



