LETTER VIII.] 



THE RULING INTEREST. 



77 



factory is working till late at night. The cane from which the 

 juice has been expressed, called " trash/' is dried and used as 

 fuel for the furnace which supplies the steam power. The sugar 

 is packed in kegs, and a cooper and carpenter, as well as other 

 mechanics, are employed. 



Sugar is now the great interest of the islands. Christian 

 missions and whaling have had their day, and now people talk 

 sugar. Hawaii thrills to the news of a cent up or a cent down 

 in the American market. All the interests of the kingdom are 

 threatened by this one, which, because it is grievously de- 

 pressed and staggers under a heavy import duty in the 

 American market, is now clamorous in some quarters for 

 " annexation," and in others for a " reciprocity treaty," which 

 last means the cession of the Pearl River lagoon on Oahu, 

 with its adjacent shores, to America, for a Pacific naval station. 

 There are 200,000 acres of productive soil on the islands, of 

 which only a fifteenth is under cultivation, and of this large 

 area 150,000 is said to be specially adapted for sugar culture. 

 Hitherto, sugar growing has been a very disastrous speculation, 

 and few of the planters at present do more than keep their 

 heads above water. 



Were labour plentiful and the duties removed, fortunes 

 might be made, for the soil yields on an average about three 

 times as much as that of the State of Louisiana. Two and a 

 half tons to the acre is a common yield, five tons a frequent 

 one, and instances are known of the slowly matured cane of a 

 high altitude yielding as much as seven tons ! The magni- 

 ficent climate makes it a very easy crop to grow. There is no 

 brief harvest time with its rush, hurry, and frantic demand for 

 labour, nor frost to render necessary the hasty cutting of an 

 immature crop. The same number of hands is kept on all the 

 year round. The planters can plant pretty much when they 

 please, or not plant at all for two or three years, the only 

 difference in the latter case being that the rattoons which 

 spring up after the cutting of the former crop are smaller in 

 bulk. They can cut when they please, whether the cane be 

 tasselled or not, and they can plant, cut, and grind at one 

 time ! 



It is a beautiful crop in any stage of growth, especially in 

 the tasselled stage. Every part of it is useful — the cane pre- 

 eminently — the leaves as food for horses and mules, and the 

 tassels for making hats. Here and elsewhere there is a plate 

 of cut cane always within reach, and the children chew it in- 



