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KAUAI  ONION  CROP. 
A letter  recently  appeared  in  the  Pacific  Commercial  Advertiser 
from  Mr.  George  H.  Fairchild  describing  and  giving  certain 
cultural  directions  of  an  onion  crop  lately  grown  on  Kauai.  The 
Forester  has  repeatedly  urged  the  local  growth  of  such  crops 
and  heartily  supports  the  writer  of  the  letter  referred  to  in  his 
advocacy  of  home  production.  The  consumption  in  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  of  imported  vegetable  and  dairy  produce,  which  could  be 
profitably  grown  here,  is  very  large  and  steadily  increasing,  and 
the  neglect  of  our  island  agriculturists  to  make  a respectable  at- 
tempt to  supply  our  markets  is  either  a reflection  upon  their  en- 
terprise or  a testimony  that  other  fields  of  investment  are  more 
promising.  That  the  latter  idea  influences  many  growers  there 
is  little  doubt,  although  the  profits  to  be  realized  from  the  growing 
of  choice  vegetables,  upon  investigation,  appear  to  be  fully  as 
large  as  those  from  most  other  agricultural  enterprises,  and  it 
possesses  the  additional  merit  of  bringing  a return  in  a far  shorter 
time  than  pineapples,  rubber,  sisal  and  most  of  the  other  estab- 
lished industries.  The  present  opportunity  to  establish  a small 
market  gardening  company  to  supply  good  staple  vegetables  of 
the  kinds  which  at  present  figure  so  conspicuously  on  our  import 
lists,  is  one  which  should  not  long  be  neglected.  At  the  same 
time,  to  the  hundreds  of  owners  of  unproductive  small  lots  in  and 
around  Honolulu  by  means  of  an  exceedinly  small  outlay  for  the 
purpose  of  growing  one  vegetable  crop,  such  as  that  suggested, 
a means  is  held  out  to  bring  a quick  return  out  of  all  proportion 
to  the  sum  invested.  May  Mr.  Fairchild’s  letter  be  instrumental 
in  inciting  many  small  growers  to  turn  their  attention  to  this 
opportunity. 
The  letter  alluded  to  is  here  given  in  full : 
Editor  Advertiser : — I am  sending  you  by  this  mail  an  onion 
raised  in  my  garden  which  weighs  one  pound.  While  this,  of 
course,  is  much  larger  than  the  average,  on  the  whole,  the  small 
patch  in  the  garden  produces  fine  onions  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  tons 
per  acre.  One  quarter  acre  in  another  place  produced  at  the  rate 
of  twelve  tons  per  acre,  but  some  peculiar  rot  destroyed  half  of 
them, 
I find  that  Honolulu  uses  fifty  tons  of  onions  a month,  say  six 
hundred  tons  a year  so  that  forty  to-  sixty  acres  of  onions  should 
pay  some  farmer  near  Honolulu  a very  handsome  profit  if  he  can 
do  as  well  as  I have  in  my  experiment. 
The  seed  was  imported  from  Portugal,  and  I would  advise  the 
importing  of  all  onion  seed  from  there  as  I have  had  no  success 
with  seed  from  the  best  houses  in  the  States  and  think  this  may 
be  due  to  the  fact  that  the  climate  in  Portugal  where  this  seed 
comes  from  is  more  like  our  own.  This  peculiarity  I find  is  also 
true  of  other  vegetables.  After  some  years  experimenting  with 
various  varieties  of  seeds,  I can  now  raise  in  my  garden  from 
