264 



culture if intelligently pursued". We have waited and waited in 

 vain for settlers to come to us from other shores. The few that 

 came prospered, but their number is limited. And the attraction 

 to others must be equally limited at least as compared with others 

 elsewhere or they would have sought our shores more freely. 



From among ourselves we had not the opportunity hitherto to 

 produce farmers. Farmers I mean in the modern sense of a 

 farmer. The farmer that pursues methods of a generation ago 

 is a failure even in America, the land of highly intensive cultiva- 

 tion and enormous yields. None but similar results could be 

 expected from old-fogy-method farmers here. The Califor- 

 nians that came succeeded because they had the experience of yeavs 

 to back them. They could not but succeed. Their experience tOL" 

 was gathered in a state where modern methods of cultivation, 

 irrigation, cropping, and marketing prevail. Failure for them was 

 practically impossible. 



But if we can not lure more of this kind from the mainland we 

 need not despair. We have in our midst a population that for 

 generations did business with mother earth. A people of the land 

 and for the land even here. A people that lias served its appren- 

 ticeship in our fields. A people that has learned to love and 

 cherish this land, to regard it as home, and will be satisfied witli 

 no other land for home. Watch them fiock back from California 

 vvdiither they wxre lured for a while by the gold brick of high 

 Vv-ages. W^hy do they so eagerly return to the islands? Because 

 this is their home. Their relatives, associates, friends — all are 

 liere. They love Hawaii, its hills, its valleys, its air, its water, 

 its soil. 



I refer here particularly to the Portuguese. But is there any 

 reason why this does not apply to all Hawaiian-born persons, ht 

 they natives, whites, Portuguese, or a mixture of them all ? Even 

 transients are charmed by the country. Those that tarry here a 

 year or two are irresistibly drawn to our shores when they leave 

 them. Our attention, therefore, should be directed towards 

 developing our internal resources. We should strive to anchor 

 our own people, our own candidates to the soil. We have the soil, 

 we have the people and all other requirements, and need but weld 

 them together to create the coveted farming element. 



Until now our provisions for making farmers, for attaching the 

 floating population to the land w^ere inadequate. To offer land is 

 not sufficient. Man upon land without tools is a sorry sight. But 



