THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



tion is still another station of three wells, from which 

 3,000,000 gallons are pumped daily. This gives an 

 aggregate of 28,000,000 gallons of water available 

 daily, year in and year out, for irrigation, with one well 

 not accounted for. The company claims that if the 

 pumps were run to their full capacity the output 

 could be increased to 40,000,000 gallons daily. Dur- 

 ing the four years these wells have been running, 

 the flow has never altered; winter and summer, day 

 and night make no change in them. 



With this immense volume of water the Ewa Plan- 

 tation Company is irrigating 3,000 acres of sugar 

 cane, 773 or which was cut and milled last season. 

 Whether from the natural fertility of the soil, com- 

 bined with abundance of water, one of the most com- 

 plete mills in the world and good management, or 

 from some other and unknown cause, certain it is 

 that the Ewa plantation shows results not obtained 

 in any other sugar country in the world. What will 

 your Louisiana planters say to a net yield of 10.06 tons 

 per acre from a 40-acre field? This amount, the 

 largest ever known, was actually produced at Ewa 

 last season. 



The following memorandum kindly furnished by 

 W. J. Lowrie, manager of the Ewa plantation, gives 

 the unprecedented yield of sugar from plant cane for 

 their crop of 1894, which was found to average, as 

 will be seen by the following figures, nearly 8, 1 3 / tons 

 per acre. 



272 acre field average 7 tons 



131 



72 

 139 

 123 



46 



m 



10.06 



1,904 



982.50 



558 



1,156.25 

 1,199.25 



487.60 



773 



6,287.60 tons 



Notwithstanding the remarkable yield given above, 

 which is the largest average ever obtained on these 

 islands, the writer is informed by Manager Lowrie 

 that the yield from the crop of 1894 would have been 

 fully 1,000 tons more if the capacity of the mill had 

 been such as to do the work required in five instead 

 of eight months, a loss of an amount equal to the first 

 cost of a large mill. The great importance of erect- 

 ing a mill with a capacity sufficient to take off the 

 entire crop in five or not more than six months is 

 thus dearly shown. It will not occur again at the 

 Ewa mill, which has been improved and its capacity 

 largely increased for this year's run. 



A ten-inch artesian well belonging to the railroad 

 and sunk near the depot, supplies Pearl City with 

 water. The water is pumped into a reservoir on high 

 ground, from whence pipe lines supply-the depot and 

 private families for a distance of two miles, besides 

 furnishing water enough to irrigate several fruit 

 ranches containing over half a million pineapple 

 plants, besides hundreds of thousands of young orange 

 and lime trees. This well furnishes the purest and 

 sweetest water found on the island. 



All of the available sugar land in this vicinity is 

 owned by the Oahu Railway and Land Company un- 

 der a sixty-year lease, and so highly pleased are the 

 managements of that corporation with the flattering 

 results obtained at the Ewa plantation that they have 

 determined to go into the sugar business themselves. 

 For this purpose an outside corporation has been 

 formed, under the name of Oahu Sugar Company, 

 with a capital of $3,000,000, of which $1,600,000 is 



to be bonded and the balance issued in shares of 

 $100. 



The railroad company leases to the Oahu Sugar 

 Company 10,000 acres of choice sugar land, 3,000 

 acres for a term of forty-five years and 7,000 for a 

 term of sixty years. The land is nearly all smooth 

 and can be divided into fields as large as 1,000 acres 

 if thought desirable. It is free from rock, brush, 

 trees or other obstructions and plowing could be com- 

 menced on it at any time. It is covered with a rich 

 growth of Bermuda grass and is now used as part of 

 the railroad company's stock ranch: All plowing at 

 the Ewa ranch and on the new proposed plantation is 

 and will be done by steam. The writer has been over 

 the grounds included in the lands of the Oahu Sugar 

 Company and can vouch for the statements concern- 

 ing it, made in the article. It is but a short distance 

 from the railroad, from which a spur will be put into the 

 mill as soon as grinding commences. The plantation 

 will be simply a network of railroad lines running to the 

 mill, as the cane will be transported from the various 

 fields to the mill by steam, no wagons being used. 

 From the mill the sugar will be taken to the ship by 

 the railway company, which owns an immense wharf, 

 coal sheds, etc., at Honolulu. The largest ship that 

 ever floated can dock alongside this wharf, and for 

 that matter can coal up in forty-eight hours if neces- 

 sary, as the company carries a big supply of that 

 necessary article at all times. It supplies the Ewa 

 mill and pumping plants with 3,000 tons annually, be- 

 sides many steamers and its own supply. 



Almost in the center of the proposed new planta- 

 tion are the Waipahu springs, with an average flow in 

 dry seasons of over forty cubic feet per second. It 

 is proposed to carry this water on the higher lands 

 of the plantation, which are situated at an altitude 

 ranging from 200 to 620 feet above, the average 

 being 410 feet. 



With a view of obtaining as much information as 

 possible concerning this new sugar corporation, which 

 will be the second largest in the islands, the writer 

 called on B. F. Dillingham, the general manager of 

 the Oahu Railway and Land Company. 



In response to inquiries. Mr. Dillingham said that 

 the prospects of the new company were very flatter- 

 ing and that there was no doubt of its ultimate suc- 

 cess. He had found also, that his estimates of 

 expenses as published in the original prospectus 

 were much too High. For instance, said Mr. Dilling- 

 ham, on the pumping alone, I was nearly 100 per 

 cent, too high, and I have just received a letter from 

 the Henry R. Worthington Pump Company in which 

 they offer to raise 20,000,000 gallons of water per day 

 of twenty-four hours, to an elevation of 620 feet, at a 

 cost of $200 per day. Now that is just one half of 

 what I figured on, and our average elevation is only 

 410 feet. 



" Can you give me any more information about this 

 new company, Mr. Dillingham, which will be of inter- 

 est to earnest raaders?'' 



"Why, yes; I can tell you something that has not 

 even been made public. When we first organized the 

 company it was proposed to issue $2,000,000 of stock. 

 Now we are going to bond the property for $1,600,000 

 and issue only $1,400,000 stock. 



"Since the issue of the prospectus of the Oahu Sugar 

 Company referred to, 1 have received a quotation 

 from the Henry Worthington Pumping Company for 

 an entire pumping plant, consisting of four high duty 

 triple expansion pumping engines, complete and 

 ready for operation at a price considerably below the 



