1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



355 



These trees were immediately engrafted very near 

 the ground and are now doing well. A week 

 later others were discovered fortht-r advanced in 

 foliage but destitute of lively bark upon the 

 trunks. As late as the 11th inst., others still 

 were discovered loaded Avith the richest foliage 

 and well formed fruit, with no indications of de- 

 cline, and yet the trunk of the trees was covered 

 only with a dark moist dead ])ark. 



1 have desisted from engrafting these last, for 

 the purpose of observing their further progress in 

 decline. 



My theory at first was, that the heavy body 

 of snow upon unfrozen ground, had occasioned u 

 slight movement in the sap in the trunk of the 

 tree, and the intense cold following in quick suc- 

 cession, the heavy thaws liad frozen the trunk as 

 low down as the snow had been removed, while 

 the circulation had not extended into tlie limbs 

 at all. This theory was somewhat satisfactory 

 to me, until as late as the 11th inst., I find other 

 trees with dried trunks and yet loaded with the 

 richest foliage and well formed fruit. 1 am 

 now confounded, and await the discussion of the 

 subject in your columns. N. F. Emerson. 



Chester, N. H., June 16, 1855. 



Remarks. — We have seen some of the trees 

 spoken of by our correspondent, and others, in 

 different localities, affected in the same manner. 

 Car* some of our intelligent tree-growers give the 

 cause and a remedy ? 



For the New Enf^iand Farmer. 



HAWAIIAN AGRICULTUEE. 



Makawao-Maui, Hawaiian I^LANDS, ) 

 Marcli Stli, 1S55. 3 



Editors New England Farmer : — Gentlemen, — 

 In my last communication, June, 1854, I told 

 you of the wheat crop Avhich we were then har- 

 vesting, and of one of Ilussey's reapers which 

 was marching through our fields. Before I shall 

 have occasion to speak of another crop of tliis 

 precious grain, let me tell you of tlie value of the 

 crop of 1854, and of the disposition which we 

 made of it. 



I may say, in a word, much of the crop of 

 1854 was injured by the rains. A portion of it 

 was utterly ruined, rotted in the field, and scarcely 

 a busliel of what was saved was as good as usual. 

 When the flour made of tlie first lot of wheat, 

 which was sent down to the mill at Honolulu, 

 was made into bread, there was a great outcry. 

 The bread was neitlier white nor sweet. Serious 

 damage to the credit of Hawaiian fiour seemed 

 for a time to be unavoidable. And though the 

 character of some lots of wheat, which were 

 ground afterwards, was sucli as to retrieve, in 

 part, the reputation of Makawao as a wheat 

 country, still suspicion and doubt rest on many 

 minds as to the success of the enterprise. Much 

 of the wheat which we designed for seed is in- 

 jured, some by heating, and all by the weevil, so 

 that only about six-tenths of it Avill come. You 

 mistook me as saying that early sowing was a 

 preventive of the weevil. Dry weather 'during 

 harvest and till threshed, witli a small quantity 

 of good air-slacked lime, will do much to prevent 

 the ravages of this insect ; at least, it did so last 



year. But this year, rains during harvest, and 

 more or less while thresliing, caused so great 

 dampness of the grain, that the wliole body be- 

 ctime damp, and this heat and dampness gene- 

 rated the weevil in great numbers. How many 

 of them have fallen on my desk and on tliis sheet 

 since I commenced writing, it would be impos- 

 sible to tell. I am not certain that tlie lime did 

 not do more hurt than good tins year, on account 

 of the dampness of the grain. At any rate, I 

 am not exactly satisfied with the experiment of 

 last year. 



The steam flouring mill — said to 1)e an excel- 

 lent one — commenced operation early in June. 

 The price paid for wheat at first was 2.^ cents per 

 pound. This, however, was not paid after a few 

 weeks. The company soon threw off one-fourth 

 of a cent, then three-fourths of a cent more, and 

 some has been sold as low as one cent. And even 

 at this low rate thd company will, doubtless, sink 

 money this year. One of the shareholders told 

 me that they should probably sink some six 

 thousand dollars. This estimate, however, may 

 be rather high. 



You can easily see tliat there is some ground of 

 discouragement in relation to Hawaiian flour. 

 Wheat can easily be raised, and wheat of an ex- 

 cellent quality. The experiment has been fairly 

 tried. Even last year, the wheat was much of it 

 of large growth and good kernel. Some of it 

 yielded about forty bushels to the acre. But 

 harvesting and curing the crop will be the diffi- 

 culty. We have no barns nor granaries ; of 

 course we have to stack our wheat. In dry 

 seasons, this method answers very well. In good 

 season, say September, we can thresh the grain, 

 (all that we can spare,) and send it to Honolulu, 

 though at some risk, from the sea-leak}^ vessel or 

 wet passage. What we need for seed we can' 

 leave in the stack till sowing time, and if the 

 wheat was thoroughly dried wlien stacked, there 

 will not be many weevils in the seed. This j^ear, 

 now that the season for sowing has returned, we 

 find the seed poor and full of weevils. We could 

 not keep what we threshed in early autumn, 

 though more than usual lime was thrown into it, 

 and it was put into a large and dry room. The 

 weevil has become such a nuisance, that I cannot 

 consent again to store it in the house. We need 

 such a granary as I see described in the Countri/ 

 Gentleman, of December 14; but we have not 

 the means of building such an one at Makawao — 

 at least, I have not. Fences and buildings of 

 some kind for wheat, corn, beans, t*cc., are indis- 

 pensaljlo to success in farming, here or elsewhere. 

 \Vc lack stone at Makawao for building wall, 

 and the wire fence is very expensive. 



We are now near the middle of March, but 

 considerable wheat remains to be sown. Not 

 more of this grain will he sold this year than 

 last, but much of it will be put in in better 

 style. The excessive rains of last year caused so 

 rapid a growth of vegetation, and prevented the 

 possibility of l)urning it, that we find it a great 

 deal of work to jirepare the ground decently for 

 a crop. The winter rains, too, are cojiious, so 

 that there is danger that we shall find tlie season 

 too short for sowing all that we desire. Some of 

 the neighbors, who sowed a good (hal last year, 

 do much less this. Others do nothing ; though 

 several foreigners and some natives, who have 



