from the higher wages and better housing conditions offered workers in the cane fields of Hawaii as compared with any foreign country. The 1928 crop showed the largest total production in the history of Hawaii, being for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1928, 897,396 tons. The yields for the preceding five years ending September 30 were as follows: These figures show that, beginning with 1924 and including the 1928 crop, the production has substantially increased from year to year. The following table gives statistics regarding the 1928 crop: The acreage devoted to sugar-cane production during the last seven years has varied from about 120,000 in 1922 to 115,000 in 1923 and 1924, rising to 121,000 in 1925, 123,000 in 1926, 127,417 in 1927, and 130,968 in 1928. The acreage increase is therefore relatively small, though the sugar production has increased over 300,000 tons in this period of time. While Hawaii's crop of sugar has continued to increase to establish new records for the Territory over this period of time, this increased production has been accompanied by but little increase in the total area planted in sugar-cane. The increase in production has been very largely due to an especially favorable weather condition which has been maintaned over the past five years. The weather conditions in Hawaii have been particularly ideal for the growing of cane during the years of 1927, 1928, and 1929. The annual acreage harvested for this crop has somewhat increased without there being a correspondent increase in the total acreage planted to sugar-cane. This is due to a tendency of somewhat shorter cropping cycles, resulting in part in actual reduction in the crop length and in part in elimination of idle or waste time between the harvest of one crop and the start of the next. General improvements in agricultural methods, conservation of irrigation water, use of better cane varieties and more exact fertilization, and timing of field operations have all played their part in increased production. Notwithstanding these facts which are due to scientific studies and application of scientific agricultural methods and to a growing skill in management, the propitious weather conditions have been the biggest factor in increased production. However, the same studies in scientific methods and in efficiency of management have enabled the Hawaiian sugar industry to take fullest advantage of the favorable weather conditions. The low cost of sugar prevailing during 1927 and 1928 and the steady maintenance of costs on a relatively high basis produced a situation which would have been very serious for the Hawaiian producers of sugar had it not been for the increased production. With the very low prevailing prices of sugar during the past year, it would have been impossible to have continued the industry on any basis of profit or prosperity had the tariff protection been absent or in any degree lessened. Comment has been made in past reports on the amount of attention devoted by the plantation members of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association in expenditure for new dwellings for employees, repair and remodeling of dwellings already in existence, and for medical service or for such services leading to the comfort and happiness of the employees of sugar plantations. As of the end of December, 1928, the sugar industry showed that there were 19,685 houses (meaning by this separate structures) devoted to, owned and maintained by the sugar plantations for the housing and accommodation of its employees. The value of this housing approximates $14,000,000 as a conservative estimate, and the total number of persons housed in plantation houses approximated at that time 101,000, which number included approximately 14,000 women and 37,000 children. Labor conditions on Hawaiian sugar plantations have been particularly good during 1928, there being no disturbances and every evidence of contented laborers and satisfied conditions. The large number of Filipinos working on Hawaiian sugar plantations continue to prove themselves quite desirable laborers who are more and more fitting themselves into the system of work in Hawaii. Something over 75 per cent of all the Filipinos in the Territory of Hawaii are on sugar plantations. Recent figures compiled by the savings banks of the Territory indicate that some 11,800 Filipino accounts aggregate over $2,600,000 in savings-bank deposits. A great deal of money is likewise sent by the laborers back to their homeland, and there is a constant return of Filipinos to the Philippines, carrying with them very considerable sums of money. On the other hand, there is a constant movement of Filipinos inbound to Hawaii to undertake work on plantations and to replace those who are returning to their native land. This contact between Hawaii and the Philippines has been particularly advantageous to both sections of the country and represents no serious problem to either. HAWAIIAN PINEAPPLE INDUSTRY Hawaiian canned pineapples, valued at approximately $39,594,090, were shipped to the mainland of the United States in the year under review. This is the second industry of the Territory, and has gained a world-wide reputation. There are 8 companies incorporated under the laws of Hawaii and 1 mainland corporation, or a total of 9, operating pineapple companies. The Hawaii companies and their capital are: Hawaiian Pineapple Co. (Ltd.), $12,450,500; Baldwin Packers (Ltd.), $1,500,000; Kauai Fruit & Land Co. (Ltd.), $300,000; Hawaiian Canneries Co. (Ltd.), $250,000; Honolulu Fruit Co. (Ltd.), $50,000; Kohala Pineapple Co. (Ltd.), $775,000; Libby, McNeill & Libby of Honolulu (Ltd.) $2,500,000; a total capital of $17,825,000. The total assets of the Hawaiian pineapple corporations is given at $35,790,226.99. Foreign corporations (home-office statementsHawaii business not separated): California Packing Corporation, $30,000,000. The Maui Agricultural Co. and the Haleakala Ranch Co., on the island of Maiu, while not canners, are large producers of pineapples, their crop approximating 10 per cent of the output of the Territory. Their crop is canned, under a profit-sharing cooperative agreement, by the California Packing Corporation at their large plant at Kahului. The Association of Hawaiian Pineapple Canners shows the amount of capital invested in canneries as $16,381,500; in fields, $13,958,500; acreage devoted to growing of pineapples, 88,000; acres under cultivation at one time, 49,356; number of employees in canneries, average, 5,000; employees in fields, average, 6,000; homesteaders growing pineapples and selling to canneries, 739; predominating races among employees, Filipinos first, Japanese second; wages paid, average, 10-hour day, in canneries, $1.88, in field, $1.81; by-products, pineapple bran, citric acid, alcohol, vinegar. The general terms of the cultivating contract provide that the buyer will buy from the seller, and the seller agrees to sell to the buyer, all of the Smooth Cayenne pineapples grown upon his landholdings during the terms of the contract. That the seller will deliver his product f. o. b. railroad cars or at loading station, and that the buyer will receive same and pay for on the basic figure as set forth in the contract, this base being controlled by the average opening price of canned pineapple, with provision for minimum price to be paid for the fruit, the buyer to pay all transportation. Different contracts vary somewhat in this respect. That the seller will cultivate and fertilize his land, plant and replant the same and care for in a manner customary and necessary for the proper care and growing of same, and to pick only when fruit has attained such condition of ripeness as may from time to time be designated by the buyer. That the fruit shall be divided into grades specified, and provision for financial assistance. The pineapple is propagated by setting into the ground young shoots of the plants, the crown from the top of the fruit, the slips which grow out from the fruit stem just beneath the fruit, and shoots or suckers thrown out from the main stem of the plant. The majority of the fields are planted in the autumn and will mature their fruit during the second summer following. This harvest is known as the plant crop and normally consists of rather large fruit, averaging perhaps 6 pounds each in good fields. As the fruit is maturing, the plants throw out branches from the main stem, two of which are allowed to remain on the plant. These fruit in about 12 months and give the first ratoon crop. If the plants are all perfectly healthy, one would expect twice as many fruits per acre in the first ratoon as in the plant crop, but of distinctly smaller size. The tonnage yield should be a little greater. More new branches are developed which yield the second ratoon crop. It is distinctly unusual to have this as heavy as either of the two preceding yields. Practically, the plants rarely retain sufficient health and vigor to be profitable after the second ratoon. Many fields fail to yield any second ratoon, and some collapse following the plant crop. The cultivation has been highly developed. Four and five plowings, harrowings, heavy applications of high-grade fertilizers, mulch paper, systems of roads and ditches, and cover cropping between cycles constitute a heavy investment. Living quarters for laborers are extensively provided, and many of the villages are exceptionally attractive. Machinery is extensively employed in the agricultural work, and the use of the paper mulch leads to considerable saving in weeding. The canneries have a remarkable equipment of machinery, much of it of a highly specialized sort. During the heavy rush of the summer harvest the canneries are operated to capacity and large numbers of temporary employees, many of them high school and college students, are employed, to the mutual profit of the employees and canning companies. The pineapple industry supports an experiment station which is operated as an adjunct of the University of Hawaii. The budget of this station amounts to $175,000 annually. Some 20 technical workers are employed on the station staff. The major problem confronting the industry is that of maintaining the health of the plants, and it is upon the solution of that problem that the efforts of the experiment station are chiefly concentrated. The present demand for Hawaiian pineapple is very strong and the packers can not accept all the available business this year. This heavy demand may be partly an ephemeral situation due to partial failure of the California fruit crop and the fruit-fly scare. There is reason to believe, however, that a part at least is a normal increase in pineapple consumption. In any event, several of the larger companies are seeking lands suitable for pineapple growing outside Hawaii, since almost all the suitable land here is either in use or preempted. A considerable expansion would appear feasible on Molokai on lands adjacent to the present homesteaded area at Hoolehua, and smaller acreages in other places. COFFEE INDUSTRY The present acreage devoted to coffee production on the island of Hawaii, the only island on which coffee is produced on a commercial scale, is: Kona district, 5,500 acres; Hamakua district, 400 acres; other districts, 100 acres. In the Kona district there are about 1,200 coffee farms, and at the height of the picking season, during the past year, about 1,200 men and 850 women were employed in the industry. The value of the coffee exported during the calendar year 1928 was $1,368,826, the crop amounting to 5,151,266 pounds. LIVESTOCK IN HAWAII Production of livestock has long been a big factor in the commercial and industrial life of the people of Hawaii. The livestock in the Territory is conservatively valued at $11,600,000 at the present time, and the animals and animal products marketed by the ranchers and dairymen of Hawaii in 1928 were valued at about $5,250,000. There are 41 cattle ranches of importance in the Territory, having a total of approximately 108,800 head of cattle. There are a number of lesser ranches, bringing the total up to 80 and the total cattle to approximately 157,756. About 1,330,000 acres of land is devoted to the cattle industry. Some 22,000 cattle were marketed in 1928 from the 41 large ranches. No exact record of the total slaughtered in the Territory is available, but, using the 1920 census figures, 27,000 head, producing a total of 14,213,000 pounds of dressed beef, would be a fair estimate. Exact figures as to the number slaughtered in the city and county of Honolulu are as follows: The average dressed weight reported in 1928 was 528 pounds. A few ranches market their cattle under 2 years of age, but the average seems to be 2 to 2%1⁄2 and a number of cases 3 years. United States census figures of livestock in Hawaii 1 Compiled by the extension division, University of Hawaii. Estimate of quantity and value of livestock or livestock products marketed in 1928 Calves marketed as veal: 2,000 at $7 each Swine: 40,000 averaging 150 pounds, 6,000,000 pounds, at 18 cents- Mutton: 3,500 sheep averaging 42 pounds dressed weight, 147,000 Wool, raw: 64,966 pounds, 3 at 25 cents Hides and skins: 2 1,457,966 pounds, at about 16 cents-- Bones, hoofs, and horns: 2 56,910 pounds, at about 2 cents. Total... 60, 000 14, 000 1,080, 000 1, 410, 000 19,000 16, 112 237, 507 1, 328 42, 720 5, 249, 500 1 Based on assumption that 20 per cent of total dairy cows are marketed annually because of old age or for other reasons averaging 500 pounds dressed beef. Shipped from Hawaii. United States Customs Office data. Ranch figures indicate this is only about half of the wool produced. |