398 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



•waii. It may be, (it has not been measured,) for- 

 ty miles long, and from three to five broad. It 

 has been overflown with lava, and is now very 

 stony; but so much of it has been decomposed 

 that there is a rich soil. It cannot be plowed, but 

 fruit trees grow luxuriantly, and native produce 

 and corn and beans do well. If the place is pre- 

 served from the fires of Pele, we shall hear from 

 South Kona again ere long. 



Wishing to see one more exhibition of Pele's 

 doings, we rode to Kiholo, thirty miles from Mr. 

 Paris'. As we left the settlement of Kona, the 

 roads became exceedingly bad where they were 

 not covered with gi-ass spread over the lava stones, 

 and trodden down. The last six or eight miles, 

 the road lay through fields of lava horrible to be- 

 hold. Now, for a mile or two, we pass through a 

 region which was overflown, I judge, one hundred 

 and fifty years ago. It is a perfect wilderness of 

 lava grown grey with age, decomposing on the 

 upper side, but judging from old fissures it must 

 be from ten to fifteen feet deep. Again we enter 

 another belt of a mile or two of a more recent 

 age, but ancient and wilder, if possible, than the 

 last. Not an inch of ground, not a spoonful of 

 dirt, is seen over all these horrid fields. And so 

 for miles, we found belt after belt, each of differ- 

 ent age, till we reached Kiholo, and stood upon 

 the lava caused by the eruption of 1859, still 

 smoking, sending up steam and vapor. We 

 walked over what had been a fine fish-pond filled 

 with mullet ; now nothing but a huge pile of lava 

 slabs. A little further, and we came upon the 

 lava stream now running on a level, and now 

 rushing down a fall of a foot or two. Approach- 

 ing one of the streams, I thrust my stick into it, 

 and drew out some of the matter for a specimen. 

 The matter was of the consistency of thick tar, 

 more adhesive perhaps. This Kiholo is about 

 three miles from Wainanalii, the fishing village 

 where the molten river just reached the ocean, 

 Jan. 31st, 1859. It has been piling up its matter 

 as it has cooled, till it has reached the place 

 where we saw it. In the evening we took canoe 

 and were rowed a mile and a half to a place 

 Avhere the stream leaps into the Pacific. The 

 wind was light and southerly, driving the steam 

 and gases from us. Our canoe approached to 

 within sixty feet where we sat and drank in the 

 grandeur of the scene. There were three streams 

 rushing down a precipice of some twenty-five feet 

 high. We judged that one of these streams was 

 two fathoms wide, the others one fathom each. 

 At times the flow into the sea was regular and 

 the commotion of the water and the ascent of the 

 steam constant. Again, the lava, just at the place 

 of falling into the water, became obstructed, a 

 large mass collected, till the stream above pressing 

 hard, the pile became detached, and tons perhaps 

 fell in at once. ♦At such times, the boiling, roar- 

 ing foaming of the maddened waters v/as terrible, 

 while the clouds of steam which ascended upward 

 reflecting the light from the burning river added 

 greatly to the grandeur and terror of the scene ; I 

 retired from this exhibition, quite satisfied with 

 what I had witnessed of Pele's doings — grateful, 

 too, I hope, that no such burning, desolating river 

 is seen at ]n-esent on Maui. Well may you, too, 

 be grateful that no such destroying element is 

 eating your fail? and fruitful fields. 



Let me now tell you of our wheat crop in 1859, 



and of our troubles from another source. We 

 had our usual troubles with the cut-worm and the 

 caterpillar. These being ended, the wheat did 

 well, was harvested and threshed, crop abundant, 

 — grain good. The wheat was taken down to our 

 little harbor, and sold till 20,000 bushels bad 

 been taken to the mill of Honolulu, and a consid- 

 erable quantity stored at the sea. Just then the 

 flouring company sent peremptory orders to their 

 agent to cease purchasing wheat. And thus some 

 5000 bushels remain on our hands. It has caused 

 much suffering among my people, and there seems 

 no little cause of complaint as the company have 

 all along urged the farmers to put in the wheat, 

 and did not suggest any limits to the quantity to 

 be raised. Considerable of this surplus wheat 

 has been sold for fifty cents per bushel. We need 

 more competition in the sale of flour, and I trust 

 that by another year there will be another flouring- 

 mill, so that bread will be cheaper. For a time 1 

 thought there would be less Avheat sown another 

 year, but as there is so much on hand, I now 

 think the quantity will be as great as last year. 

 Some think even greater. 



There is much complaint, just now, of the hard 

 times. The poor success of whalers for the last 

 year or two, is one cause, I sup])ose. One of our 

 wheat growers, a man from Georgia, U. S., was 

 basely murdered on the night of January 1, of this 

 year. He was an intelligent and industrious man. 

 The murderers have not been convicted, though 

 three young Hawaiians are under arrest for trial. 

 We have had a very dry season, and our fields 

 are still suffering. 



Yours, with much respect, J. S. Green. 



Makawao, Maui, January, 1860. 



HOW MUCH HAY FOR THE HORSE? 



This is a question which we have seen proposed 

 in some of the journals of the day. If put in & 

 general manner, you might, with as much pro- 

 priety, ask how much horse for the hay ? The 

 quantity of hay for the horse must depend on 

 many contingencies — such as the size of the horse, 

 the proportion of oats or other provender which 

 he receives, his general health, &c. &c. 



A Wisconsin man has sent a communication to 

 the Wisconsin Farmer, on this subject. He says 

 he has had experience in keeping horses, and tried 

 careful experiments in regard to feeding them. 

 He thinks that on an average Jive pounds at a 

 time, and three feeds per day, with twelve quarts 

 of oats per day, or their equivalent in shorts, is 

 enough for a good sized horse. He considers "a 

 good sized horse" one that will weigh 1150 lbs. 

 He recommends cut feed as being vastly prefera- 

 ble to any mode of feeding horses. He also con- 

 tends that horses so fed have no cough or heaves, 

 which he believes to be inseparable from feeding 

 with clover or dusty hay, unless it be eut and well 

 dampened. 



Those who have tried the method, say that a 

 feed of carrots, say a peck once per day, to horses, 

 will be better than large allowances of oats, or, in 

 other Avords, a few carrots will be better to take 

 the place of part of the oats usually given. The 

 reason assigned for this is the following : Car- 

 rots contain an ingredient called Peci!/c acid, which 

 acid is a great aid to the gastric juices in digest- 



