The Hawaiian Planter’s Record… Old Plantation Days, May 2016

It is well known that the Hawaiian Sugar Planter’s Association, HSPA, was instrumental in new cane varietal research, sugar manufacturing, and advances in cultivation techniques.  Through the HSPA, the sugarcane plantations of Hawaii became the highest yielding and most productive sugar companies in the world.  The Big Five corporations and their subsidiaries funded the HSPA through sugar assessments and other special projects.

One facet of the HSPA was the “Hawaiian Planter’s  Record” a publication that documented all sorts of advances in cane cultivation and manufacturing, but also the efforts of the “planter’s” in experiments with other crops besides sugarcane.

The Planter’s Record is a fascinating collection of agricultural trivia from the turn of the century to the 1970’s.  Not only were crops investigated, but reforestation of the Forest Reserves with new species of trees, advanced livestock care and the raising of grains to feed them, new irrigation methods, the construction of ditches, weirs, dams and reservoirs, and then the investigation into new agronomic crops that could grow in Hawaii.

Early on it seems the plantations were always looking for a new profitable crop to add to their existing cane fields.  Many of the crops that are successful today had their origins in the experiments of the Planter’s Record.  Papaya, Macadamia, Cacao, Coffee, Tea, Guava, Mango, Ginger root, all had reports dating to the Record.  Even during time of world conflict and the threat of submarines sinking our trade ships, the planter’s record instructed the plantations on the proper way to grow potatoes during World War II, lest we find ourselves in a state of famine.  Then there was the growing of Sisal plants for fiber so we could make our own rope, (ever wonder why there’s so much sisal around the island?, that’s why).

No doubt the record is mostly about sugarcane and all the new advances being made, but it is about those other “minor crops” and analyzing their potential that intrigues me now.  With 2016 comes the complete end of sugarcane in Hawaii.  H,C&S announced it is closing its sugar operations on Maui with the last harvest.  What will come of those 36,000 acres of cane land on Maui?  Perhaps some of it will end up in a crop or feed or fiber crop that was studied some 75 to 100 years ago in the Planter’s Record.

Of contention recently was the diversion of water from the streams of Maui to feed H,C&S’s cane fields.  The diversions were done almost a hundred years ago and well photographed with the record.  With their closing H,C&S announced it would return a portion of the water to those streams, that is good, but only partially.  The vast acreage of H,C&S’s land needs water as well to grow the new crops that will exist there.  Without water the lands will turn into a dust bowl of brown vacant lands.  The waters need to remain flowing within their ditches and tunnels to provide food and economy for the new post sugarcane era. 

Let’s support the continued agricultural use of Maui’s cane lands into new crops, new orchards and new pastures, all grown and raised to the highest standards the world has ever seen, and in part due to the experiences referenced in the Hawaiian Planter’s Record!