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ures have been secured to us, by our immediate ancestors in the cultivation of fruit-bearing trees and vines, and flower-bearing shrubs and bushes. We all are participators in the kindly feelings produced by the reflection that the ancient homestead of our common ancestor was a garden, and that "Out of the ground made the LORD GOD to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food," and who among us would forego the delight produced by the recollection that the original homestead of our race was the garden of Eden?

It would seem therefore that it was the design of our Creator that a taste for Horticulture should originate with the creation of our being and that it should accompany the development of man down to the present period. Let us, therefore, encourage and foster it as an art sanctioned by Holy Writ, in that, "The LORD GOD planted a garden eastward of Eden," before general agriculture was known.

But aside from the example of our Creator, who to imitate, it is always our duty, whether we can appreciate the motives of his acts, or they are hidden from our limited understandings, it seems to me there are many reasons that may be apparent to us all, why a garden should have our first attention. As an utilitarian as well as a lover of pleasure, I hesitate not to declare, that upon these islands horticulture should command the first consideration of all who desire their agricultural prosperity.

It is known that the soil of this kingdom, by the generous liberality of our Sovereign and the Chiefs has been apportioned between them and the people, and that much the largest proportion of our population are now the owners of only small tracts, without the pecuniary ability to increase their possessions. And it has also been assumed by those more familiar than myself with the cultivation of the present staples of the country, (with how much truth is yet to be proved,) that large estates can alone be made profitable to the farmer. Conceding this assumption to be true, much the largest class of our agriculturists are necessarily compelled to become Horticulturists, or labor without gain.

Besides, large estates, without the necessary capital to improve them, in whatever hands they may be, must remain waste land. It will be conceded that there are but few foreigners among us who have the pecuniary ability to make sugar or coffee plantations, and that the

natives are without the capital or credit to erect sugar-mills, or wait the return of their labor if bestowed upon growing coffee. Planters, therefore, they cannot become, and the only field open to them is the garden. They can only be interested in the horticultural products of our soil, and constituting a majority of the community in which we live, their interests should receive the prominent attention of this society.

But there are yet other considerations commending Horticulture to our especial consideration.

All political economists, and especially those of the free trade school, recommend the fostering care of a people to be bestowed upon such articles as are seen to find a ready and continued market. The products of our planters are seen to come into competition with similar staples of other countries, not only in domestic consumption but when they seek a foreign market. Sugar and Coffee are safely transported abroad, and Manila, China and Central America are all now competitors for the trade of the Pacific in those articles, and however great may be the consumption in districts where they cannot be produced, the supply is likely to be equal to the demand and furnished by cheaper labor and from countries where capital is more abundant than on these islands. A ready and continued market for the present staples of the islands is not, therefore, surely within the reach of our planters.

Now, how is it with regard to the Horticultural products of our soil? Are they as yet in abundance for home consumption, and are the markets in California, to which they can safely be transported, supplied?

Whoever has paid his "quarter" for less than a half-pound bunch of grapes, and a real for two small, sour oranges; and a like sum for a small and half ripe pine-apple in the Honolulu market, can answer as to the domestic supply; and the prices current of the same articles, from San Francisco, afford abundant proof that they are in demand in California.

I mention only these varieties of fruits that can and should be produced in our gardens, but there are many others, that could be cultivated at a profit that cannot be had at any price, here or in San Francisco, except in packages that have doubled Cape Horn or Cape of Good Hope. Almonds, Tamarinds, Prunes, Olives, Lemons, Pome

granates, Dates, Figs, and many other nuts and fruits can be profitably cultivated in our tropical climate. And as yet California and our own people are dependent for the supply of most, if not all of them from ports beyond the Capes. Articles of like kinds, could they be had fresh plucked, or within forty days from their gathering, even at an advanced price over those that are brought from abroad, would command the market; and were the utmost energy and consumate skill of our entire population, (were they proficients in the art of producing them,) to be entirely devoted to their production, the market here, and in California, is, and is likely to continue wide open for all the results of their labors. A successful competition is not to be anticipated from any quarter, and the demand is likely to increase beyond any possibility of supply from the limited area of arable land on these islands. Such being the fact, political economy would direct that the growing of fruits and nuts should receive the first considerations of this Society, if its object is to increase the agricultural wealth of the people at large.

Thus far I have endeavored to commend the subject of my report to the consideration of all, thinking myself without the ability to furnish any thing from experience or knowledge of the art of gardening of value to the Horticulturists, if any, of the Society.

Practical gardening is a science without its votaries among us. Beyond the cultivation of a few beans and tomatoes, and a few other common culinary vegetables, I know but few who have progressed in the application of the principles of the science, and those are gentlemen without the leisure to give personal attention to the subject, who have been dependent for their labor upon men entirely ignorant of the duties they were expected to perform. The necessary consequence has been, as yet, but little advance has been made in testing the capabilities of our soil to produce culinary vegetables and table fruits, and and at a cost within the reach of the community. Whenever a well directed and persevering effort has been made to produce any particular vegetable or fruit grown in tropical climates I believe it has been successful and I doubt not it always will prove to be.

If so, the only obstacle in the way of these Islands becoming, indeed, the garden of the Pacific, is the want of skillful gardeners; and

how they are to be procured is worthy of the consideration of this

Society.

The natives are now entirely ignorant, not only of the first principles of the art of making a garden, but of the use of the necessary implements of cultivation, and they must remain so without teachers. There may be a few foreigners among us capable of instructing them in the theory, but I have inquired in vain to find one who was willing to exhibit to them a practical illustration of his skill for hire.

Such being the fact, an effort to induce a few intelligent German gardeners to emigrate to our shores, (who would find immediate and profitable employment, I feel assured,) I would suggest, as a partial remedy for our present wants. They would enable those who have the taste and the pecuniarv ability, without leisure to bestow personal attention upon a garden, to experiment with skillful labor, wisely directed, upon the capabilities of our soil, and their example, in preparing the earth, and planting seeds, and cultivating plants would be imitated by those who are ignorant.

There are few of the natives, even, who have not a natural taste for the cultivation of flowers and plants, as is manifested in the dwarfish specimens of geraniums and annuals that are seen near to and about their huts, and they are apt to imitate, as is apparent by their rapid conformity to the habits and tastes of a foreign race, and could they but see the results that would follow the skillful cultivation of a garden, I doubt not they would profit by it. Human nature is the same the world over, and remembering, as I do, the effect of the introduction, by myself, of several varieties of flowering shrubs and bushes into a district where they were not common, in inducing others to cultivate similar plants and improve their qualities and varieties, I cannot doubt the result would be the same here. Teachers who would instruct by example would soon furnish the islands with skillful Horticulturists.

Other committees of the Society, who are expected to report "8 on Analyses of Soils," "on Worms and other Injurious Vermin," "on Seasons," on Trees and Grasses," "on Garden Seeds and Fruits," will probably enlarge upon the details of practical gardening, and I would not trespass on the ground assigned to them. The nature of our soil, its deficiencies and peculiarities; the kinds of noxious ver

min that trespass on our plants and shrubs, of which we are all comparatively ignorant who have emigrated from northern climates; the seasons, which are as marked here as where the thermometer ranges down to zero; the trees and grapes, that can successfully be cultivated in this latitude and upon our soil; and the seeds and fruits that are indiginous and which can be successfully imported, all merit the careful investigation of the practical Horticulturist, and it is to be hoped that from year to year individuals will be found ready and willing to enlighten us upon those subjects. Without a knowledge of them all the practical gardener, however industrious and skillful in the use of tools, will labor without profit.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON COFFEE.
BY G. RHODES, Esq.

MR. PRESIDENT,-I thought that in my essay on coffee read before the last meeting of this society, I had communicated the whole of my experience, and having been of late particularly engaged, I neglected to respond to your friendly call, a few weeks since, reminding me of the near approach of the meeting, and of my duties as chairman of the committee on coffee.

Within the last few days I have received a communication from my esteemed friend Mr. Pitman of Hilo, and as I consider that the subject is possessed of considerable interest, I shall endeavor to reply to it before this society. Mr. Pitman, says "There is one matter for "remark in connection with our coffee trees, and I should be much int"terested in learning whether yours on Kauai are similarly affected. "What I allude to would take the shape of a blight, did I perceive "that it influenced the health of the plant, which I cannot say it appears "to do this is a smut which crusts on the leaves, in appearance sim"ilar to what may be observed on the leaves of trees in a manufactur"ing district, where the appearance is easily accounted for. Al"though this visitation may not injure the health of the plant, it is a

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