1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



307 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HAWAIIAN AGRICULTURE. 



Makawao, Maui 1./.nd Islands, ? 

 March 28lh, 1853. > 



Gentlemen : — About a year ago'I addressed you , 

 requesting the paper for my son, and giving you 

 some items respecting the ishmds which I thought 

 might interest you, and your readers. _ I also pro- 

 mised to coiamunioate with you from time to time 

 as I might have anything worth your hearing. I 

 have dehxyed too long, and now hasten to prepare 

 another communication. 



Some months since, I forwarded you a Polyne- 

 sian, our weekly newspaper printed at Honolulu. 

 In tills number you saw probably, a report on 

 "wheat, corn, oats, and other grains," which I 

 had the honor of presenting to the Royal Haw- 

 aiian Agricultural Society. If you had the pa- 

 tience to read this long report, you are informed of 

 the history of w^icat and grain growing on this 

 group of islands. I am much mistaken if the fact 

 that wheat can be raised at the Sandwich Islands, 

 will not afford you i)leasure. You will not de- 

 spise the day of small things, but will bid us "God 

 speed' ' in our efforts to produce our own flour and 

 grains of other kinds. Allow rae to tell you what 

 we are doing to increase this important means of 

 sustenance since the meeting of our society in 

 June, 1852. 



Judge Lee, our worthy President, in his address 

 at the opening of the last meeting in speaking of 

 our wheat at this place, remarked, that "Maka- 

 wao now has the honor of owning the only thresh- 

 ing machine and ft jur mill on the islands." This 

 is true, and though some 400 bushels of wheat 

 were raised on my farm and soon after harvested 

 and put into stacks, yet I am sorry that I cannot 

 report more favoraljly of the results of wheat 

 growing and flour-iaanufacturing up to this date 

 The fact is, I depended upon a broken reed in the 

 shape of a farmer, 'f he threshing machine, a small 

 one of the Albany manufacture, belongs to me ; 

 but my farmer who had taken my place for five 

 years, owned the horse power. Beingj^eadstrong 

 and self-sufficient, instead of consulting with a ma- 

 chinist in the neighborhood, and having things 

 done properly, he went ahead and broke down ere 

 the team had gone their round a. single time. 

 He then went to work and constructed a wooden 

 power, but after spending some 7 or 8 days in 

 threshing 80 bushels, he gave it up, and sold out 

 his part of the wheat and left my place. Ere he 

 left, however, he undertook to grind some of his 

 wheat in the flour mill. In this he did not suc- 

 ceed, but nearly ruined the mill, a small mill de- 

 signed for domestic manufacture. The wheat re- 

 mained in the stack, exposed to all our storms and 

 to the ravages of rats and mice, till the gentleman 

 who purchased the wheat visited San Francisco 

 and purchased another power. We then, about 

 the middle of January, threshed out our wheat, 

 but found that much had been destroyed by the 

 vermin and injured by the rains. The machine 

 did not thresh clean, through some defect in mak- 

 ing, so that we had much less wheat than we ex- 

 pected. I immediately commenced planting in 

 drills, and continued to plant till the last of Feb- 

 ruary. I then found that the weevil was devour- 

 ing my wheat, and I finished it by sowing and har- 

 rowing it in as soon as possible. Some sixty bush- 

 els I thus committed to the bosom of the earth. — 



Mr. Gower, the owner of the other parts of the 

 wheat, has sown some 90 or 100 bushels, and oth- 

 er neighbors have planted and sown some 20 or 

 30 bushels more. Mr. Gower has sent home for 

 a flouring mill and designs to go into the business 

 of manufacturing flour, corn, meal, &c., &c. 



The weather seems to be favorable for wheat- 

 growing, being rainy and cool. But we have our 

 own trials. I had hoped we should escape the 

 ravages of the pelua or cut worm, as I had seen 

 scarcely a dozen in covering several acres of wheat 

 as I did with my own hands. But no sooner had 

 I finished sowing and harrowing in the wheat, than 

 they appeared in great numbers and attacking it 

 very young, so soon, indeed, as it began to peep 

 from the ground ; tiicy have destroyed or neixrly 

 so, several acres. They take down other things 

 such as squashes, melons, cucumbers, corn, &c. — 

 This is a trial, I assure you, one which it requires 

 much patience to endure, for though I think, on 

 the whole, we have fewer destructive insects at 

 the Islands than you have in the United States, 

 for the pelua and weevil are nearly all which we 

 fear — yet we have no means of repairing our loss. 

 There is not a bushel of wheat left on all the Sand- 

 wich Islands. So that if half or all my wheat 

 should be eaten down by the pelua, there is no 

 remedy. So of all our seeds. I have about one 

 hundred ears of corn, and a quart of beans, but I 

 fear to plant any of these grains lest they be 

 destroyed, and I lose all. So of garden seeds. Had 

 we a seed store on Maui, I should experiment 

 often. As it is, the thing is dangerous. Still there 

 is hope in regard to Hawaiian agriculture. We 

 have a committee on "worms and other injurious 

 vermin," and though no light, or none of any con- 

 sequence has yet been cast on the best means of 

 destroying them, I am not without hope that 

 something will yet be effected. I shall expect 

 something important from the chairman of this 

 committee, W. Newcomb,M. D., a scientific mem- 

 ber — at our next meeting. I think that a place 

 might be found some five miles from the top of the 

 mountain back of my place, where garden seeds 

 might be raised, and were I young and vigorous, I 

 would try the experiment of a garden for that pur- 

 pose. I shall keep the idea of such a garden be- 

 fore my mind and some one may be induced to 

 take hold of the thing. Few of the garden seeds 

 germinate on reaching the islands, hence the scar- 

 city of New England vegetables. We seldom see 

 a beet or a carrot or a turnip, and how much such 

 vegetables would add to our comfort, I need not 

 attempt to tell you. 



But my dear friends, the editors of the New 

 England Farmer, and ye friends who read the pa- 

 per, you see on reading my report, that the great 

 obstacle to success in agriculture lies back of all 

 these difficulties. It may be found in the want of 

 laborers. Farming is in low repute, and for aught 

 I see, it is likely to be so. I cannot think of a sin- 

 gle youth, if I except my own son, who thinks 

 even of becoming a practical farmer. Some fa- 

 thers tell of such and such a son — young and ten- 

 der as yet, becoming a farmer all in good lime. I 

 have little confidence that any such thing will be 

 realized, and for the obvious reason that all the 

 sons of these fathers, so soon as they approach 

 manhood, are either sent to the United States to 

 acquire an education, or are allowed to go behind 

 the counter, and devoted to the important work of 



