240 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



ing more than a village, though sometimes called a 

 city, has, of courae, grown quite tast, and many large 

 buildings are now being erected — stores, inns, dwel- 

 ling houses, and shops. A large and very fine, flour- 

 ing mill is nearly up, and another house, for public 

 worship, will soon be built. The streets are being 

 improved, and new ones opened ; the old markets 

 torn down, and spacious and convenient ones erected 

 in their place. I think Honolulu is gi'owing quite as 

 ikst as a healthy state of the system will allow. A 

 much more rapid growth would not be desirable, in 

 my opinion. 



"Lahaina has no harbor — nothing but an open 

 roadstead; and though perfectly safe for most of the 

 year, still it is impossible that ship-masters should 

 have the same fechng of security that they have in 

 the inner harbor of Honolulu. 



" Hawaii will never be a sugar manufacturing 

 island. 'Tis too much broken up by deep ravines. 

 Maui has had six respectably large establishments, 

 four of them quite large. There are now only th-ee. 

 Each of these establishments, exclusive of the lands, 

 cost from $75,000 to $100,000, and are capable of 

 producing at least 300 tons of excellent sugar per 

 year. The lands on Maui are well adapted to the 

 growth of sugar-cans; I have never known a serious 

 failure of this crop on the island. On Oahu there 

 are no plantations, nor on Molokai, excepting small 

 Chineae ones. Kanai has two, one tolerably large 

 and profitable; the other a steam-mill, erected at 

 great cost, but as yet unprofitable, owing chiefly to 

 the failure of cane crops. 



" In regard to agricultural interests among us, I 

 feel more encouraged than I have ever done during 

 my residence of more than twenty-five years on the 

 islands. I think there is a waking up generally 

 among us on the subject. In my neighborhood both 

 foreigners and natives are engagmg in the business of 

 wheat-raising. A young Hawaiian farmer raised the 

 last year 18G bushels of fine wheat, and he will pro- 

 bably put in thirty or forty acres the present season; 

 and he would do much more than this, but for the 

 fear that he cannot get it cut. Several others are 

 putting in. One foreigner designs to put in 800 

 acres; and it is thought that some 1,500 acres wdll 

 be sown in Makawao and vicinity. A large flouring 

 mill is being built at Honolulu, so that all who raise 

 it will find a market for their grain. 



" Corn, oats, and barley, can be raised easily and 

 abundantly on all the islands; the sweet and Irish 

 potato, onions, squashes, and melons of all kinds, and 

 of fine qnality. Yery fine garden vegetables are 

 being produced at Honolulu, and will soon be at 

 other places on all the islands, I have no doubt. In 

 addition to fruits, which are indigenous to the islands, 

 such as oranges, lemons, citrous, guavas, figs, pine- 

 apples, &c., we have peaches ; and apples, pears, 

 plums, and cherries, will doubtless be introduced. 

 At Lahaina t^rapes do well, and they may be raised 

 at other places. The islands are small, and there is 

 a great deal of broken land, mountains, deep ravines, 

 and lava plains. Still the soil is good, the climate 

 delightful, and, facilities for trade being fine, I have 

 no hesitation in saying that it might be a delightful 

 and happy country. We have had a specimen of 

 Fi-ench and English treatment, and few if any among 



us desire more. Still I am opposed to annexation. 

 The poor Hawaiians would soon feel the withering 

 influence. Besides, I have not a doubt that the fires 

 of the distillery would be kindled and the land be 

 deluged with rum. 



" I have scarcely a doubt that the leading men of 

 Honolulu will agitate the subject of annexation till 

 the thing is brought about. The fact that the oppo- 

 nents of Dr. JuDD, the late Minister of Finance, are 

 continually brewing mischief, seeking to gratify their 

 private dislike, though it should weaken or destroy 

 the governruent, is the most alarming one, to my 

 mind, of any connected with the subject of annexa- 

 tion. If a proposition for annexation shall soon be 

 made to your government, you may take it for grant- 

 ed that the king has been driven to it by the threats 

 of men who go by the unlovely name of filibusters. 



« J. S. Green." 



THE GUANO TRADE. 



Dr. James Higgins, the State Agricultural Chemist 

 of Maryland, in a letter to the Washington Union in 

 relation to the high price of guano, gives the follow- 

 ing interesting facts touching the present condition of 

 the trade in the article : 



" Peru owes about $60,000,000, for which she has 

 pledged her guano. Of this debt, full one-half is due 

 to English holders of her bonds, whose agents are 

 Anthony Gibbs & Son ; the balance is due to the 

 following houses, who have either loaned that govern- 

 ment money on the pledge of guano consignments, or 

 are the agents of houses which have done so, viz : 

 Montane, in France ; Muretta & Co., in Spain ; J. 

 Levellair & Son, in China ; Fexdall, for Mauritius 

 and other islands ; and Barreda & Bro., for the 

 United States. These firms have either loaned 

 particular sums of money to the government of 

 Peru on the pledges of certain amounts of guano, 

 or have agreed to furnish money on consignments 

 of guano in the same manner as our commission mer^ 

 chants do. 



" The profit on guano in England to the importer, 

 in 1847, was about twenty-three dollars per ton; but, 

 as freights have advanced since that time, the profits 

 are from eighteen to twenty dollars, which I suppose 

 to be about equal to those realized from its sale in 

 this country." 



Dr. H. adds that he learns from a most reliable 

 source that the quantity of guano which will be 

 brought to the United States this year, will be about 

 200,000 tons. 



Two hundred thousand tons of guano purchased at 

 fifty-five dollars a ton (the present price in New 

 York), will take out of the country eleven million 

 dollars for imported manure. For a comparatively 

 new country, this is a starthng fact. All the com 

 and corn meal exported in the last fiscal year amounted 

 to less than two and a half million dollars. When 

 will our people see the folly of wasting so much of 

 the elements of crops in all their cities and villages, 

 and in almost every rural district, and then sending 

 to the west coast of South America for ten million 

 dollars' worth of manure ? 



