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From: David L. Crawford, Hawaii’s Crop Parade
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(Advertiser Publishing Co. Ltd., 1937)
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| At the turn of the century, annexation to the United States introduced another influence toward agricultural diversification: the establishment of an experiment station which was to be devoted principally to the objective of developing new crops for Hawaii. When Hawaii became a part of the United States the federal Department of Agriculture noted the excessive preeminence of the sugar industry here and, mindful of the unfortunate results of over-specialization in the cotton belt of the southern states, advocated very strongly the diversification of agriculture in these Islands. In accordance with this attitude an agricultural experiment station was established by the federal government in 1901, on the outskirts of Honolulu, which devoted itself to the investigation of potential new crops and industries for this newly annexed Territory. While a large number of possibilities were explored during the ensuing years, chief emphasis was placed on a few which seemed to offer the best promise, notably tobacco, rice, rubber and starch; also, several fruits received a good deal of attention, especially the orange, avocado, pineapple, mango, banana and papaya; and several vegetable crops. The work of this Station undoubtedly contributed materially to the successful establishment of the pineapple industry, for, although pineapple production was definitely on the way to becoming an industry before the Station was able to give it any material assistance, it was the discovery of the iron sulfate treatment that enabled the new industry to occupy large land areas theretofore unavailable because of too much manganese in the soil. A new force was introduced into the situation in 1907 by the establishment of a territorial institution of higher learning, which in addition to offering agricultural instruction also conducted some researches in the field of general agriculture. Such federal aid as it received was available only for instructional functions, however, and therefore its agricultural research work had to depend upon territorial appropriations for its support. This disparity with the mainland states was remedied some years later, in 1928, by an act of Congress making available to Hawaii a share of all the federal aid funds appropriated for agricultural research in the land grant colleges. At the same time an agreement between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Hawaii was effected for the amalgamation of the federally controlled Hawaii Experiment Station and the University's research station. During a transition period of several years it was provided that the fusion station should be controlled jointly by the Territory and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and thereafter by the Territory alone, with the same co-operative relations with the Department of Agriculture as obtain in the states. Thus, there finally emerged here an agricultural experiment station with financial support enough to make it an important factor in the diversification of industry in these Islands, and capable of meeting the crisis which was presented by the recent depression. |
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Posted November 16, 2001
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