limes and bananas have thriven exceedingly well, and all these fruits with but little attention attain a state of perfection.

GARDEN VEGETABLES also thrive here. The soil in many parts is particularly adapted to the growth of the onion which for quality and flavor it is generally allowed cannot be surpassed. I take the liberty to forward you a sample grown on my farm which is but an average quality of those grown by the natives.

ARROW-ROOT.-Not much attention paid to the culture. It grows wild and from it in this wild state some hundreds of tons per annum might be manufactured at a cost not to exceed 4 cents. Herewith please to receive sample made on my farm.

SWEET POTATOES yield abundantly and approach nigher to the Carolina potato than any other grown on these islands. You will also please receive samples of this production.

COFFEE. The growth and yield, with attention to the plants, not to be surpassed. Accompanying this please receive a sample bag, the growth of our plantation.

COCOA. With care this production can be brought to perfection and yields abundantly, as a few trees in my garden fully attest. I accompany a few seeds and when the coming crop shall be ripe it will give me pleasure to supply any who may desire seed.

ORANGES. It is to be regretted that this fruit is not more extensively cultivated, the few bearing trees yielding abundantly and the fruit being of very superior quality.

LABOR. With regard to this subject I have but litttle to communicate. Prior to the last couple of years little or nothing has offered to stimulate the native of this district to labor. Every available inducement which I have conceived I have adopted and tried, in order if possible to innoculate them with a spirit of industry, but their natural indolence appears to be so firm rooted that every attempt to overcone it has proven abortive. It is with much regret that I am compelled to acknowledge my fears that the means are yet undiscovered whereby may be produced the radical change, so necessary in this respect to the happiness, increase of comforts and advancement of the Hawaiian Still I am willing to hope that such means (notwithstanding my fears to the contrary,) may be discovered, acted upon, and prove productive of the hoped for result.

race.

Hilo, August 1851.

B. PITMAN.

As I have not heard from any of the corresponding members; and have corresponded with several without success in my search after information, I cannot be expected to furnish so full a report as might be desirable but; I take the liberty of enclosing it under cover to you for disposal at your option.

REPORT,

BY G. RHODES, ESQ., VICE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, FOR KAUAI.

The undersigned much regrets that it has fallen to his lot to be the recorder of the bad state of agricultural affairs on this island. Since the formation of the association in 1850, no new plantation has been established, although there are thousands of acres of fertile land unoccupied, which would, if put into cultivation, contribute largely to the national prosperity. The effect produced on the mind of the traveller on our beautiful island is anything but pleasurable when he surveys the large tracts of land, that should support thousands and furnish a large export, utterly neglected and the inhabitants congregated in villages by the sea-side, where they pass their time in the most deplorable idleness, merely growing sufficient kalo for their support.

The plantations already established on the island are generally badly off for laborers and in some cases are fast falling into decay on this account. The dearth of labor is attributable to several causes : as the natural indolence of the native race; the high prices for food, created by the settlement of California; the emigration of many of the young men to that country, the determination of the natives in many cases not to work for the foreigners settled among them except on their own terms; and the unnecessary time that has elapsed in fulfilling a contract to introduce China laborers.

It is believed in some parts of the island that a change is about taking place and that labor ere long will be abundant, and it is pretty certain that in some places the natives do not manifest the same decided disinclination to work that they do in others. The estate of R. W. Wood, Esq., at Koloa, also that of Messrs. Peirce, & Co., at Lihue, have, the writer has been informed, received re-inforcements of laborers from Honolulu and Hawaii. This plan of introducing laborers from other islands will undoubtedly be productive of beneficial results. Some idea may be formed of the position in which agriculturists here for a considerable time past have been placed, from the following facts :-Natives have refused to work for less than four dollars per day; they now demand at Hanalei one dollar per day and eighteen dollars for breaking in a pair of steers.

There is no doubt that matters are much worse than they would have been had the so long and anxiously expected Chinamen arrived in due season.

The sugar crops are generally expected to be pretty good; the new plantation of Messrs. Peirce & Co. is flourishing and the works are fast progressing towards completion. These enterprising gentlemen appear to be determined to overcome every obstacle by which they are, beset, and it is to be hoped that they will ere long be amply remunerated for the care and expense they have bestowed in subduing the wilderness and rendering it subservient to the uses of civilized life.

The coffee plantation of Mr. Titcomb is in excellent order, the trees healthy, and he expects a tolerably large crop from it. The plantation belonging to Mr. Hunt and myself and those of Messrs. Archer and Wundenberg, should, if in good order, yield at least seventy tons of coffee this year, but I am sorry to say that owing to the want of labor they are in a very bad state and the most we can expect from them is one third of that amount; and even this we shall not be able to collect if the Chinamen do not arrive, as the natives will not work.

The condition of the public roads under the superintendence of foreigners is wonderfully improved, and the amount appropriated by government for their further improvement will render them tolerably good and easy for travelling on horseback. It is hoped that in the course

of a very few years the whole of the distance between Hanalei and Waimea will be traversed by a good carriage road.

Hanalei, Kauai, July 31, 1851.

G. RHODES,

Vice Pres. of the R. H. A. S.
for the island of Kauai.

ESSAY,

ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE COFFEE TREE AND MANUFACTURE OF ITS PRODUCE, WRITTEN FOR THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, BY G. RHODES, HANALEI, KAUAI, JULY, 1851.

Pater ipsi colendi

Haud facilem esse viam valuit. Virg. Geo. Lib.

Within the whole range of agricultural pursuits it would be difficult to discover any branch affording a more pleasing occupation, or a better subject for contemplation and study, than the cultivation of the coffee tree. In the earlier stages of its growth, a weak and unpromising plant, it becomes under favorable circumstances, by care and the application of science, an object of great beauty and a prolific source of wealth.

With respect to tropical agriculture, independently of the pleasure afforded in watching the full development of the beauty and symmetry of this plant, it possesses the weighty advantage of not requiring so great an outlay in the erection of buildings and provision of machinery for its manufacture as the sugar cane. In our islands it is more certain to find a ready market than indigo, cocoa, cotton, &c., and should the market be overstocked and no immediate sale found for it, instead of deteriorating it improves by keeping.

The great object to be obtained in the cultivation of the coffee tree, is a large annual crop with as little distress to the plant as possible, and to its attainment a judicious use of the pruning knife, as well as

1

constant care to keep the plant clear of weeds, is necessary; this is a highly important study to the coffee planter, and one on which there is great diversity of opinion.

With my limited experience I approach the subject with much diffidence, and although I give my own method of cultivation the preference over others, I am far from believing that it may not be materially improved.

The coffee tree is known to, and described by botanists as follows: "Coffea Arabica, or Jasminium Arabicum, a genus of the Pentandria order, belonging to the Mongynia class of plants and ranking in the natural method under the order Rubiacea."

The coffee tree is generally supposed to be a native of Arabia, but according to some authorities there are reasons to believe that it was imported into that country from Ethiopia, where the use of coffee as a beverage had been known from time immemorial. It is said by some that its exhilarating qualities were first discovered by the prior of a convent in Arabia, who observed the effect produced on goats by browsing on the leaves of the plants, and who afterwards prepared the infusion as it is now used and gave it to the monks to keep them awake during their night devotions. There is no doubt that the use of coffee was discovered in the East, and Constantinople was the place where public establishments were first instituted for the use of this then luxury.

It was introduced into England in the thirteenth century, but for a long period was very little used; the consumption of it however has gradually increased until at the present day it is generally considered one of the necessaries of life.

In the 17th century the Dutch obtained the coffee plant from Arabia which they introduced into their possessions in Batavia, and thence to Amsterdam. Louis the 14th obtained a plant from this place, the seed of which he sent to the French West India Islands, whence the plant was introduced into the British West Indies by Sir Nicholas Laws; it is probably from this neighborhood that it found its way to South America; it is also highly probable that the coffee now cultivated throughout the East India Archipelago is from the original stock of the Dutch settlements in Batavia.

Lord Byron is, I believe, entitled to the honor of having first intro