October, 1910.] 



341 



Miscellaneous. 



the least benefit from success would be 

 an intrinsic one to the industry, from 

 the increased yield of cane through the 

 intensive cultivation that tillers of their 

 own soil would give. This is being de- 

 monstrated now in Queensland. 



Other events of the year, partly related 

 to that just considered, and affecting 

 diversified farming as well as sugar 

 raising, may be briefly stated. First is 

 the beginning of conservation work in 

 the island by Federal experts at Terri- 

 torial expense. This service is certainly 

 destined to add considerably to the 

 limited area in cultivable land in the 

 Territory, making more room for pro- 

 ducing citizen settlers. Next is the work 

 of the Commission on Advances to 

 Homesteaders, which has resulted in a 

 report just rendered to the Executive 

 covering three bills tor submission to 

 the Legislature. The commission finds 

 that the measure to provide for money 

 advances to homesteaders proposed 

 would likely be unconstitutional. In 

 lieu of such a law they submit three 

 bills, all designed to assist and encourage 

 the homesteader. One is for provision 

 by the Territory of cheap transportation 

 for the settler whereby he may pro- 

 fitably market his products. Another 

 measure is to provide for making im- 

 provements on homesteads in advance of 

 sale, so that the settler may find shelter, 

 water, fences, etc., on the homesteads he 

 buys. The third is to reduce the interest 

 on the deferred payments to the Terri- 

 tory by the homesteader to five per cent, 

 per annum. 



Among conditions joining with events 

 in making hopeful auspices for general 

 farming development a few only need be 

 stated. There is the pioneer work 

 already done by enterprising individuals 

 and corporations, which has fairly 

 demonstrated the capability of Hawaiian 

 soil to yield profitably of various staples 

 having either local or world markets. 

 With such pioneer work in fruit, cotton, 

 rubber, tobacco, copra, etc., is also to be 

 considered the practical investigating, 

 experimenting and educating work of 

 the Territorial Experiment Station and 

 the College of Hawaii, which obviates 

 for the homesteader to a very great 

 extent the necessity of passing through 

 the painfnl experience of the oldtime 

 pioneer in new country development. It 

 is all especially valuable service for the 

 new comer into tropical agriculture. 

 Lastly, mention may be made of the 

 immense expansion of the home market 

 for food products which has taken place 

 within a few years, and is still in pro- 

 gress, in the advent of large military 

 forces for permanent stationing here, 



the construction of a great drydock and 

 dockyard works for the navy, the growth 

 of tourist traffic and hotel business, the 

 new railway projects and the rapid 

 increase of town populations. Truly, if 

 ever there was a country holding 

 brilliant promise for its domiciled far- 

 mers ab any time, Hawaii is in such 

 happy situation in this eventful year 

 of its development. 



RECENT PROGRESS IN TROPICAL 

 AGRICULTURE. 



By J. C. Willis. 



(A course of Lectures given at Harvard 

 University in 1909.) 



In giving a course of lectures upon 

 this subject to a general audience, it will 

 be uece^sary to dwell with some degree 

 of force upon what after all are elemen- 

 tary facts and principles, but in auy 

 case a clear understanding of these is 

 needful for a proper grasp of the subject 

 that we are considering. 



Tropical agriculture, with its multi- 

 tude of unfamiliar cultivated forms, is 

 not infrequently looked upon as it it 

 were an altogether distinct subject, to 

 be treated on its own peculiar lines, 

 This is by no means the case, and a man 

 who is well acquainted with the agricul- 

 ture of Europe or of North America 

 should be able, once he has had time to 

 familiarise himself with the new condi- 

 tions, to apply his knowledge with equal 

 effect in the tropics ; or vice versa. 



The principles that govern agriculture, 

 however, whether it be in the temperate 

 or in the tropical zone, have not, to my 

 knowledge, been very clearly laid down 

 in most of the text-books. The reason for 

 this seems to be that the agriculture of 

 the colder climates has, in general, pro- 

 gressed considerably beyond the primitive 

 stage in which it may still be seen in 

 tropical countries. Now we shall see that 

 the factors which are most effective in 

 causing agricultural progress are on the 

 whole different in the elementary stages 

 of that progress from what they are in 

 the later, or rather, that some of them 

 are more effective at one, some at 

 another, stage. 



At first the factors are mainly political, 

 and later on more scientific. 1 do not 

 mean to imply the former are not 

 scientific, nor the latter political, but 

 use these terms in the sense in which 

 they are generally employed, as belong- 

 ing to the political and natural sciences 

 respectively. In the colder climates 

 of the north, the political factors are 



