CAPITALISING AGKICULTUKE 31 



modern lines was introduced into Hawaii, and at that 

 time there were only five cane plantations in the 

 islands. By the end of the century there were nearly 

 100 sugar companies established, producing sugar 

 worth more than $12,000,000 annually ; and since 

 the American annexation at the end of the century the 

 islands have been flooded with American capital and 

 efficient Japanese labour, and the sugar industry 

 greatly developed. 



The magnitude of the operations of the present 

 companies may be gauged from the following figures 

 relating to a good average company in the island of 

 Oahu. The capital of the company amounts to 

 Ks.2i crores (£1,500,000), and the company annually 

 harvests some 5000 acres of cane, averaging 40 tons 

 of cane and 5 tons of sugar to the acre. Natural 

 conditions are certainly favourable, but extensive 

 operations have been undertaken to develop them 

 to their fullest extent. Irrigation is supplied from 

 artesian wells, 500 feet deep, which deliver to the 

 ground level, from which the water is pumped to a 

 height of 400 feet to a reservoir in the hills from 

 which it is distributed to the plantations. In such 

 circumstances the cost of irrigation amounts to well 

 over Ks.200 a year, per acre of cane irrigated, and it 

 is only a good crop which could stand such a charge. 

 The soil receives the best cultivation from steam 

 ploughs, and the cane is crushed in the most modern 

 mills with six separate sets of rollers. Perhaps the 

 greatest difficulty to be surmounted was the labour 



