Coffee Culture in our New Islands [pp. 459-462]

OVERLAND MONTI4LY
A COFFEE CLEARING
bids fair to outdo all othe branches of
agriculture in popularity and financial
return.
At first it was thought that only on the
leeward side of the Islands could coffee
be grown with assurance of success. The
islands lie on the very edge of the tropics
and for nine months are subject to the
buffeting of the northeast trades. As a
result the Southern and Western sides of
the Islands have a much more equable
and steadier climate than those exposed
directly to the wind. There is less rainfall, too, and a more even warmth.
These are the Kona districts, so called
because they are subject only to the
Kona, or south wind. It was natural that
the coffee raised should come from the
most favored districts, and so today,
Kona coffee is the technical name
for all of that staple shipped from
the Hawaiian Islands. As a matter of fact, however, there is a
large area outside of these districts which has been practically
proved adapted to the cultivation
of this product.
Coffee does not thrive at the
level of the sea. It has been
grown at a height of five hundred
feet where the soil was porous
and of unusual richness, but the
practical range is from twelve
hundred to two thousand feet
above the sea. Above that it is
possible as high as two thousand -
six hundred feet, but does not
thrive or bear as at the lower
levels. Trees set out at the
five-hundred-foot elevation grow
faster than those higher up, and
come more quickly into bear ing, but the plants run more to
wood and have not the stamina
of those maturing more slowly.
They bear fewer berries when
mature, and come more quickly
to the period of diminishing re turns. The highest bearing
coffee known in the Islands is
stated by the Government report
to be "twenty-five miles from
the town of Hilo in the cele brated Olaa district."
There are only eight of the
Islands-Niihau, Kauai, Oahu,
Molokai, Maui, Lauia, Kahoolawe, and
Hawaii, which are practical for agriculture. Of these the ones best suited
for coffee seem to be Hawaii, Maui,
Oahu, and Kauai. The Government
estimate is that there is in them over
two hundred thousand acres of land
fitted practically for coffee planting,
of which only about fifty thousand
is now planted with coffee trees.
It will be seen that there is a chance
here for all the capital that will drift into
the islands in many years. The lands
can be had in small parcels and at prices
ranging from ten dollars to thirty dollars per acre. There is not required the
enormous capital and expensive machinery necessary in sugar planting, and
while the return is not immediate, the
TI-IREE YEAR OLD TREES
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