445 



fluids. Tliis fact was made use of by Mr. W. H. Rice in estab- 

 lishing a grove, of Aigaroba trees at Kipukai, Kauai. This gen- 

 tleman had repeatedly planted this species there with no success, 

 and so resorted to the following expedient : He fed a drove of 

 mules with Aigaroba pods and then sent them over the mountains 

 to Kipukai and turned them loose on the land. The result was 

 the establishment of a full stand of trees. In seven years he has 

 thus secured a dense grove of about 15 acres, which not only sup- 

 plies shade and fodder for his animals, but also fuel for his men 

 who formerly had to depend upon driftwood. 



PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 



THE PROGRESS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Tlie recent message of the President to Congress contains much 

 that is important m relation to the agricultural condition in 

 Hawaii. The follozving paragraphs are of particular interest to 

 our readers: 



The only other persons whose welfare is as vital to the welfar^* 

 of the whole country as is the welfare of the wageworkers, are the 

 tillers of the soil, the farmers. It is a mere truism to say that no 

 growth of cities, no growth of wealth, no industrial development 

 can atone for any falling off in the character and standing of the 

 farming population. During the last few decades this fact has 

 been recognized with ever-increasing clearness. There is no 

 longer any failure to realize that farming, at least in certain 

 branches, m.ust become a technical and scientific profession. This 

 means that there must be open to farmers the chance for technical 

 and scientific training, not theoretical merely, but of the most 

 severely practical type. The farmer represents a peculiarly high 

 type of Am.erican citizenship, and he must have the same chance to 

 rise and develop as other American citizens have. Moreover, it is 

 exactly as true of the farmer as it is of the business man and the 

 wageworker, that the ultimate success of the nation of which he 

 forms a part must be founded, not alone on material prosperity, 

 but upon high moral, mental and physical development. This 

 education of the farmer — self-education by preference, but also 

 education from the outside, as with all other men — is peculiarly 

 necessary here in the United States, where the frontier conditions 

 even in the newest States have now nearly vanished, where there 

 must be a substitution of a more intensive system of cultivation 

 for the old, wasteful farm management, and where there must be 

 a better business organization among the farmers themselves. 



