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mated at upwards of 1000 millions of dollars. It is true that agriculture has not attained to that perfection in the United States which it has reached in England, but this is owing not to any want of effort for its promotion, but rather, if I may so speak, to the want of necessity. In the United States every man may become the proprietor of a large estate, which he need only half till to be independent of want. In England it is far different. There no soil must lie idle or be partially tilled; for upon his little field depends not only the farmer's subsistence, but his ability to meet his rent. American agriculture has the sweep of almost endless territory, and knows no limits but the demand for its products. The farmer of America may almost say—

No pent up Utica contracts our powers,

For the whole boundless Continent is ours."

The importance of agriculture and the necessity for its encouragement as a means of national prosperity must be obvious to all. The culture of the soil lies at the bottom of all culture, mental, moral and physical. In every country has it been coeval and inseparably connected with civilization. The dawn of one is the birth of the other. Check one and the other languishes; divide them, and both die. It is an axiom of history too plain to admit the question, that until the savage abandons his roaming, hunting, and fishing, and laying aside his vagrant habits, confines himself to some fixed abode and improves the soil, he can never become a civilized being. Like every other wild animal, before man can be tamed, or civilized, if you please, you must confine him to some local habitation and gather around him the attachments of place and home. I repeat what I have already said, that it is agriculture that civilizes a nation-it is agriculture that feeds a nation-it is agriculture that clothes a nation, and it cannot be denied, that that which civilizes, feeds, and clothes us, must be regarded as the chief pillar in the temple of national prosperity.

England, great as she is in her manufactures, and justly proud as she is of that commerce whose giant arms bind the globe in her em-. brace, would be weak indeed, if deprived of the productive power of her soil. Agriculture is the body of which manufactures and commerce are but the members. Both the latter may be lopped off without destruction to the former; but touch the heart of agriculture and it is death to all. As in England, so is it in the United States. She looks

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to the surplus products of her soil to furnish materials for her Lowells and her Manchesters, and commodities to freight her ships for trade with foreign countries. So is it in every great country; and so, if we would prosper, must it be here. Until we produce more than we consume,—until our surplus produce afford an export exceeding what we import, we can make no advance in wealth or prosperity. In all countries the products of the earth, and the animals it sustains form the main reliance of the state. Mines of gold and silver richer than those of California may fail, or the poor digger starve while groaning under the weight of his hard earned treasure, but the well cultivated field and abundant harvest are an exhaustless mine, and are sure to close the door against want, and fill the land with comfort and plenty.

Again, agriculture is the source of physical and moral health. It is the salt of the earth that gives a nation vigor and strength and preserves its moral from taint and corruption. It is true beyond dispute, that the culture of the soil is the most natural and healthy of all labors. It is to the farm we must look for vigorous bodies and stalwart arms; and in every country which has an agricultural class, that class forms the bone and muscle of the nation, on which she relies as the great bulwark of her strength. That those who are steadily engaged in the labors of the field have sounder bodies and firmer health-that they are less liable to sickness, and less apt to die when sick, than others, is a truth which has been fully demonstrated in these Islands during the last two years. While the measles and whooping cough were ravaging whole districts and carrying death to nearly every dwelling, the laborers on plantations passed almost unscathed. On the plantation of Mr. Torbert, which employs upwards of forty hands, there was not a single death, and on that of Mr. Rhodes, which employs an equal number, there was but one. To what is this marked difference owing? Undoubtedly much is due to the superior care received by the sick on plantations; but is it not mainly owing to the superior health induced by steady labor in tilling the soil?

I have said is is not only the source of physical but of moral health to a nation. So it is. In every country where man is not reduced to a slave, those engaged in rural labors are the most moral and religious. It is natural it should be so. The husbandman, removed from the giddy pleasures and vices of the town, sows and plants, and looks up to God to bless the labor of his hands. "For all his peculiar blessings

he is invited to look immediately to the bounty of Heaven. No secondary cause stands between him and his Maker. To him are essential the regular successions of the season, the timely fall of the rain, the genial warmth of the sun, the sure productiveness of the soil, and the certain operations of those laws of nature which must appear to him nothing less than the varied exertions of omnipresent energy. In the country we seem to stand in the midst of the great theater of God's power, and we feel an unusual proximity to our Creator."

Farmers, and by this term I do not mean the serfs of Russia-the vassals of an absent lord, or the hired laborers of a great planter, but those who own a portion of the soil and till it, are of all classes the most moral, contented and independent. They love order and peace, and are not willing to jeopardize all the comforts and enjoyments that cluster around their rural homes, by promoting popular tumult.

In my opinion agriculture is a matter which has been too much overlooked in the Sandwich Islands. That so little has been done towards its promotion, is, at the first glance, a matter of astonishment to all. But when we strike beneath the surface of things, and examine the tenure by which the people have held their lands, and the little protection they have had for the products of those lands, our wonder vanishes. Until within the last year the Hawaiian held his land as a mere tenant at sufferance, subject to be dispossessed at any time it might suit the will or caprice of his chief or that of his oppressive luna. Of what avail was it to the common people to raise more than enough to supply the immediate wants of their subsistence? Would the surplus belong to them, or afford the means of future independence? Far from it. It would go to add to the stores of their despotic lords who claimed an absolute right in all their property, and who periodically sent forth their hordes of lunas to scour the country and plunder the people without the shadow of right or mercy. Often did these ravagers -these Land Pirates, leave the poor makaaina with little else than his maro, his digger and his calabash! With such a tenure to their lands, and with such protection, or rather want of protection for their products, what could be expected of agriculture or the people? I thank God that these things are at an end, and that the poor kanaka may now stand on the border of his little kalo patch, and holding his fee simple patent in his hand, bid defiance to the world! Yes, I thank God that he has moved the hearts of the King and Chiefs of

these islands to let the oppressed to free! The granting of Royal Patents in fee simple to the common people for their lands is the brightest jewel that adorns the crown of Kamehameha III., and will shine with increasing lustre long after his body shall have mouldered to its mother earth!

The agricultural prosperity of a country is greatly dependent upon its landed tenures; and it has been justly remarked, that "give a man a barren rock in fee simple, and he will soon make it a garden; give him a garden with an insecure title and he will soon convert it into a desert." The social and political condition of a country also depends in no small measure upon its landed tenures. So true is this, that when we seek to know the state of a nation, one of the most important questions to be asked is, by what title do the people hold their lands? Let the peasant hold his land at the will of another, and he is a serf; give it to him in fee simple, and he is a man !—an independent, a better, a more useful man.

Perhaps there is no country in the world that offers greater promise to the husbandman and grazier, at the present time, than the Sandwich Islands. The lands are now thrown open to all classes, the native and foreigner, the subject and alien. We have a climate unparalleled in its salubrity, and affording every variety from the perpetual snows of Mauna Kea to the burning plains of Waikiki. Our soil though not deep, is warm, quick and fertile. We have no great extent of arable land, but I suppose out of the four millions of acres, at which the area of the islands has been computed, in round numbers, it would be a fair estimate to say that one eighth, or 500,000 acres, are fit for the plow, and 2,000,000 of acres will afford good pasturage. What a fund of wealth lies hid in the slumbering energies of those 2,500,000 acres ! Enough to feed five millions of inhabitants, and load a hundred first class ships annually with our surplus produce. Besides a fine climate and good soil, we are free from taxation on our land, and in California and Oregon we have an unlimited market. A market too, which, owing to our proximity to those countries, will enable us to take advantage of every favorable turn it presents, and obtain larger prices for our great staples of sugar and coffee than traders from any part of the world. Let us be awake to these advantages.

There is one agent, however, that we require, who holds the key to success, the great brawny-armed, huge-fisted giant called LABOR. We must not only secure him, but direct, aid, and economise his ef

forts; for though with his strong arm and heavy hand he is mighty to accomplish, yet unguided by the art of man he strikes like the blinded Cyclops of old, destroying with one blow what he effects with another.

We may not have sufficient labor, we have not, but do we improve what we have? Do we economise it as we ought, by studying the nature of our soil and plants, and the amount of labor necessary for them? Are we making such improvements as we ought in our modes and implements of culture? Let us look back upon the history of our agriculture and see what advance we have made. What more do we know of sugar cane and coffee, their growth and manufacture, than we knew at the opening of the first sugar plantation at Koloa, or the first coffee plantation in Manoa? Doubtless we have made some advance, but far less than we ought. Depend upon it, until we bestow more study upon our soil, plants, and modes of culture, and seek to economise labor more than we do, we shall never meet with success.

It is an old adage that, “the man who causes two ears of corn or two blades of grass to grow, where only one grew before, is a public benefactor;" and if ever a field was open for acquiring such a reputation, it is here in the Sandwich Islands. If what I have said be true, if agriculture does lie at the bottom of all other interests of this kingdom,-if it is the source of life and wealth to a nation, and the only sure foundation of its prosperity, then it is our duty to spare no effort for its promotion. And not only is this great duty incumbent on us as individuals, but upon the government, as the chief guardian of the nation's welfare. I know much has been done by the last Legisture towards encouraging agriculture, by granting the natives their lands in fee simple,-by throwing open our waste acres to the skill, industry, and capital of foreigners, and by the abolition of all duties on agricultural implements, garden seeds, and cattle introduced to improve our stock; but much yet remains undone. Government could, and I believe will, afford an important aid:

First-By making good public roads and bridges, both of which are so essential to the agricultural prosperity of a country. By a judicious system of internal improvement, cultivation would be extended to thousands of acres now waste, and the productive territory of the kingdom be constantly increased.

Secondly-By improving our harbors, and facilitating communication between the islands by the introduction of small steamers.

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