1878.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
253 
Agriculture in the Sandwich Islands. 
BY EDWARD BELLAMY. 
The three main groups of Polynesia, the Sand¬ 
wich, or Hawaiian, the Tahitian, and the Peejee, 
have within twenty years risen to a very respect¬ 
able rank among food-producing countries. Each 
of the five larger islands 
of the Hawaiian group has 
a wet and a dry climate, a 
hot and a cold one, with 
the gradations between 
these extremes, all lying 
within a day’s ride of any 
point. The trade winds 
blowing steadily all the 
year round from the north¬ 
east, bring the rain clouds 
which, impinging against 
the lofty mountain ranges, 
are precipitated in show¬ 
ers that clothe the wind¬ 
ward sides of the islands 
in perpetual verdure; 
while the leeward sides, 
receiving only occasional 
showers from clouds 
which pass the mountain 
gauntlet, are very dry. But 
against drouths the “lay 
of the land ” around lofty 
central mountains affords 
a remedy in the numerous 
streams which furnish, 
in most seasons, ample 
supplies for irrigation. 
The perfection of the cli¬ 
mate is such that the 
language has no word an¬ 
swering to weather. The Hawaiians have climate, 
but no weather. In any given place the tempera¬ 
ture and density of the atmosphere are nearly iden¬ 
tical the year round, but if change be desired, any 
variety of climate can be secured by removing a 
few miles either up or down the mountains, or from 
the windward to the leeward side, or the reverse. 
On the uplands of Maui there is generally snow¬ 
balling to be had in the winter; and on the high¬ 
lands of Kauai fires are needed in July. The hot¬ 
test portions of the islands are, however, by no 
the equator. The explanation is the wonderful 
equilibrium of the temperature, which renders crops 
which will grow there at all safe as those which 
could endure considerable variation in temperature. 
The soil is uniformly reddish in color, being 
formed by the decomposition of volcanic rocks. 
In texture it is extremely dry and light, and even 
where rains are most frequent, mud rarely aecumu- 
HAWAIIAN DRESS.—MALE. 
means oppressive, even for out-door labor, owing 
to the constant breeze from the sea. It is difficult 
for the visitor to understand how a country whose 
climate is not so hot as that of the Northern States, 
can yet be so essentially tropical in its products, 
growing almost everything that can be grown under 
HOTJSE OF THE NATIVE SANDWICH ISLANDER, 
lates. Within an hour or two after the severest 
storms the roads are dry. The larger part of the 
arable land lies in broad alluvial strips running 
around the shores, and extending five, ten, ortwenty 
miles inland. Above this region are extensive up¬ 
lands, more suitable for grazing purposes, and then 
come the mountainous crests of the Islands, tower¬ 
ing up ten to fifteen thousand feet in peaks, each 
of which is an extinct crater, from whose mouths 
the lands below were originally vomited forth. 
Extensive forests occur among the central moun¬ 
tains of each island, and also diversify the lowlands. 
They are usually so dense as to be traversable only 
with the assistance of the axe, and are broken by 
innumerable profound chasms and deep circular 
pits, which were active craters at a period in the 
islands’ history when their surface was pimpled 
more thickly with burning volcanoes than is a small¬ 
pox patient’s face with pustules. The trees in these 
forests are overgrown with masses of ferns and 
parasites which interlace and bind the whole jungle 
so as to make it almost impenetrable. Large tracts on 
all the islands have been devastated by lava flows, 
and lava fields stretching for miles are of frequent 
occurrence. Of course these do not offer very eli¬ 
gible sites for plantations, but still it is astonishing 
what extremely fertile soil this lava makes when 
broken up. It actually seems as if the cooking 
process to which it had been subjected had pre¬ 
pared it the better for agricultural operations. It 
is no uncommon thing to find the natives raising 
their sweet potatoes on hardly cooled lava, merely 
broken up a little, and mixed with volcanic ashes. 
For fruit lovers these islands are a paradise. Or¬ 
anges, bananas, cocoa-nuts, mangos, mangosteens, 
strawberries, guavas, pineapples, figs, tamarinds, 
chiramoyas, alligator-pears, and all kinds of mel¬ 
ons, peaches, citrons, grapes, limes, Ohia apples, 
raspberries, are but some of the fruits and berries 
of these fortunate isles. The oranges and bananas, 
as well as the fruits generally, are of unusual excel¬ 
lence, and far from being difiicult to cultivate, only 
ask to be permitted to grow. The proximity of the 
San Francisco market, and the close steam connec¬ 
tions with that place, as well as Australia, are cir¬ 
cumstances which point to the fruit-growing busi¬ 
ness as one of the most promising industries of the 
islands ; but at present it is so unaccountably neg¬ 
lected as even to make it difficult for visitors to 
obtain enough fruit for their private use. 
Although the lowlands are essentially tropical in 
their productions, the uplands are a temperate zone 
in which the crops of the north flourish. Excellent 
Irish potatoes, although not large, are raised on 
Maui, and wheat is successfully, although not ex¬ 
tensively, cultivated in certain parts. But sugar 
planting has hitherto pre¬ 
vented any proper atten¬ 
tion to other branches 
of agriculture. Not only 
have the latter been at a 
standstill for a number of 
years, but they have even 
retrograded of late, owing 
to the withdrawal of capi¬ 
tal from them, to put into 
the sugar business. Be¬ 
fore the reciprocity treaty, 
which admitted Hawaiian 
sugar into the United 
States free of duty, the su¬ 
gar-planters in the Islands 
lived on hope entirely, 
though in 1873, just before 
the treaty, the exporta¬ 
tion reached 23,000,000 lbs. 
But the middlemen, the 
Honolulu merchants and 
money-lenders, to whom 
the crops were all mort¬ 
gaged, were the men who 
made the money. The im¬ 
mediate effect of the trea¬ 
ty was to put a bounty of 
50 per cent on all the 
6Ugar produced. At this 
time the business receiv¬ 
ed an enormous impetus, 
and at present is the principal commerce of the 
Islands; and its growth and manufacture the 
principal industry. The gross profit of the mills at 
once became 100 per cent, leaving them, after the 
enormous deductions for interest money and mid¬ 
dlemen’s expenses, a clear profit of half that. 
Plantations which were in a tolerable condition, at 
once began to roll up fortunes, while planters, who 
had been in a desperate state, were placed on the 
high road to wealth. There was a prodigous rush 
of capital into sugar-planting. Men sold all they 
STONE IDOL.—GOD OF AGRICULTURE. 
had, begged or borrowed what cash they could, and 
put the proceeds into a plantation. All other kinds 
of business suffered paralysis ; everybody was anx¬ 
ious to share in the sweet harvest. Everywhere in 
the Islands, out of Honolulu itself, sugar is the 
only theme of conversation. It is like a gold min- 
