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aside from the few potatoes and other things which he is able 
to raise in order to hve, the outlook for homesteaders is dreary. 
Agriculture is not only the basis of industry, but it is the hope 
of the future development of commerce between countries, and 
it is the hope of the development of all other industries. 
Now in Hawaii we have the possibility of growing nearly 
all kinds of crops ; there is hardly anything you can mention that 
we cannot grow here in certain places. 
The main reason which seems to stand in the way of the more 
rapid development of agriculture is the matter of markets. The 
question arises, what are we going to do with things after we 
produce them? There is no use ih advising a man to plant 
things for which there is no market, or at least, no ready market, 
and from which no immediate returns can be obtained. This 
applies particularly to homesteaders who depend absolutely on 
what they can grow in one or two years and who have no means 
to wait for a development of a long-time crop. There is no 
use of advising them to grow things which they cannot sell — 
for which they cannot obtain ready money. To simply make a 
meagre living is not farming. A man cannot grow everything 
that he requires in life. There must be some income from the 
crop which has a regular standing in the world's market or in 
our local market. 
It seems to me that we have to reckon almost exclusively on 
crops which can be sold on the mainland or here in the Islands, 
and which bring ready money and which will put a man in a 
position to have a home that may be considered a real home and 
give him a little extra money so that he can decorate that home. 
In this way we shall avoid forcing- the homesteader into the awful 
condition in which a man is merely existing. 
A number of crops have been studied that will warrant further 
development and show possibilities for really prosperous home- 
steads in a good many localities. 
One of the crops of which some of us have had great hopes 
for a good many years is cotton. We can produce a very fine 
quality of cotton here in localities to which it is best adapted. 
We do not expect to use up all of the land which is not now 
used for something else, for this crop, but a good many of the 
lands which are now being let go to waste could be used ad- 
vantageously for this crop. Naturally, there are different men 
who wish to cultivate different things ; but this crop is a money 
crop ; there is nothing that is more absolutely a money crop than 
cotton, — simply so^much cotton so much money. It has a regu- 
lar market price. 
Commercial outfits are now working at the tobacco business, 
and incidentally, making it possible for small farmers to grow 
this crop and dispose of it to these commercial concerns, and in 
that way receive enough money to cure their product, and to en- 
courage them to go on in the cultivation of tobacco on a small 
