241 
opers, promoters, of the agricultural resources of the islands. 
To their ability is due the phenomenal growth of the sugar in- 
dustry, which has systematically fostered the importation of large 
masses of cheap labor, mainly the Orientals and Latins above 
mentioned. The sugar industry was also the main factor in the 
annexation of Hawaii by the United States. The immigrants 
brought in to supply the plantations were naturally drawn from 
agricultural classes, accustomed to country life and to farm labor. 
They live ver}^ simply, receive small wages and raise large fami- 
lies, as do similar classes the world over. 
The indigenous and immigrant population of Hawaii is there- 
fore, by both heredity and necessity, almost entirely agricultural. 
Living on a relatively low plane of life, they have desired but 
scant education for their children. With the exception of those 
in Honolulu and Hilo (the only cities in the Territory), the 
schools are country schools, usually near sugar plantations. With 
the exception of a few large ones in the above-named cities, the 
schools are almost entirely primary schools, covering only the 
work of the first four grades. Of the 20,245 pupils in the public 
schools in 1910, 17,369 were in grades one to four, inclusive ; 
2,486 in grades five to eight, inclusive ; and but 254 in high schools. 
There is but one first-grade public high school in the Territory. 
In 1910 the nationalities of the children in the public schools 
was as follows : Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian, 30% ; Orientals, 
40%; Latins, 20%; Teutons and others, 10%. Hawaii's great 
school problem is therefore to furnish primary education to non- 
EngHsh-speaking peoples of the lower classes. It is in the solu- 
tion of this problem that the schoolgarden, as a part of agricul- 
tural education, can play so important a role. 
Agricultural education, in the strict sense of the word, has 
never received adequate attention in Hawaii's schools, no more 
than it has in other school systems. The reasons are the same 
here as elsewhere — inappreciation of manual activities, lack of 
trained teachers, etc. In addition, the necessity for teaching 
English to non-English-speaking peoples has tended to make the 
curriculum lean toward drill work in language. 
The majority of the white men who first came to the islands 
were unfamiliar with agricultural processes, especially those con- 
nected with tropical agriculture, and for a long time had little in- 
terest in it. The sugar industry, and other farming enterprises, 
are managed by large corporations on the plantation system, em- 
ploying principally alien labor. In Hawaii there has never devel- 
oped a permanent community of white farmers working their 
own land ; indeed, social and industrial conditions have been pro- 
hibitive to such development. There are no "farmers' children" 
in the sense in which that phrase is used on the mainland ; there 
is no "country life" equivalent to that of "the states." 
The white people have, in general, favored the education of the 
lower classes along industrial lines, for several reasons : to fur- 
