PRODUCTIONS OF HAWAII. 



SO? 



some districts, and water melons are almost a drug. The 

 bamboo is known to grow sixteen inches in a day. Wherever 

 there is a sufficient rainfall, the earth teems with plenty. 



Yet the Hawaiian Islands can hardly be regarded as a field 

 for emigration, though nature is lavish, and the climate the 

 most delicious and salubrious in the world. Farming, as we 

 understand it, is unknown. The dearth of insectivorous birds 

 seriously affects the cultivation of a soil naturally bounteous to 

 excess. The narrow gorges in which terraced " patched culti- 

 vation " is so successful, offer no temptations to a man with 

 the world before him. The larger areas require labour, 

 and labour is not to be had. Though wheat and other 

 cereals mature, attacks of weevil prevent their storage, and 

 all the grain and flour consumed are imported from Cali- 

 fornia. 



Cacao, cinnamon, and allspice, are subject to an apparently 

 ineradicable blight. The blight which has attacked the coffee 

 shrub is so severe, that the larger plantations have been dug 

 up, and coffee is now raised by patch culture, mainly among 

 the guava scrub which fringes the forests. Oranges suffer from 

 blight also, and some of the finest groves have been cut down. 

 Cotton suffers from the ravages of a caterpillar. The mulberry 

 tree, which, from its rapid growth, would be invaluable to silk 

 growers, is covered with a black and white blight. Sheep are 

 at present very successful, but in some localities the spread of a 

 pestilent " oat-burr " is depreciating the value of their wool. 

 The forests, which are essential to the well-being of the islands, 

 are disappearing in some quarters, owing to the attacks of a 

 grub, as well as the ravages of cattle. 



Cocoanuts, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, kalo, and bread- 

 fruit, the staple food of the native population, are free from 

 blight, and so are potatoes and rice. Beef cattle can be raised 

 for almost nothing, and in some districts beef can be bought 

 for the cent or two per pound which pays for the cutting up of 

 the carcase. Every one can live abundantly, and without the 

 " sweat of the brow," but few can make money, owing to the 

 various forms of blight, the scarcity of labour, and the lack of 

 a profitable market. 



There is little healthy activity in any department of business. 

 The whaling fleet has deserted the islands. A general fiilikia 

 prevails. Settlements are disappearing, valley lands are falling 

 out of cultivation, Hilo grass and guava scrub are burying the 

 traces of a former population. The natives are rapidly di- 



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