Twelve varieties of cane were imported from Queensland, Australia, in 1880, but of these only one—the Rose Bamboo—compared with the Lahaina in productiveness, and that only in high altitudes.
In 1898 Lahaina and Rose Bamboo seemed to have outlived their usefulness on the Hamakua coast of the island of Hawaii, and while they continued to give excellent results in the low, sheltered valleys, it became evident that they could not be profitably grown on the uplands. The yields in the Hamakua region were becoming smaller each year and the plantation owners had to seek a new variety. A cane known as Yellow Caledonia[41] solved the difficulty and wonderful crops of it have been raised uninterruptedly in that section ever since.
In 1856 no fertilizers were used and practically nothing was known of irrigation. The average yield of sugar at that time was one ton per acre. The extraction of sugar from the cane was less than 50 per cent, while today in the best mills it exceeds 98 per cent and the average result from all Hawaiian factories shows over 90 per cent.
The industry struggled along under severe handicaps and discouraging circumstances until 1857, when the number of plantations on the islands had dwindled down to five: Koloa and Lihue on Kauai, the East Maui and the Brewer on Maui and a Chinese outfit near Hilo, Hawaii.
In 1858-59 steam was adopted as the motive power in the mills; wooden mills were superseded by those built of iron and in 1861 the first vacuum pans were introduced. The same year saw the number of plantations increase to twenty-two, nine of which employed steam for the grinding of the cane.
The outbreak of the Civil war in the United States cut off the supply of sugar drawn from the Southern states and caused the price of Hawaiian sugar in kegs to advance to ten cents a pound. This gave the Hawaiian producers their first real start. In 1863 the export tonnage was 2600, and this increased until in 1860 it reached 8869 tons.
A small plantation was started at Paia, Maui, by a Captain Bush in 1868 and in the following year he disposed of it to S. T. Alexander and H. P. Baldwin. The former gentleman was then manager of the Haiku plantation and the acquisition of his interest in the Paia venture necessitated his going to Honolulu to borrow the sum of $9000, which he managed to do, but not without difficulty. Mr. Alexander was the father of irrigation in Hawaii. He promoted and built the Haiku ditch, which was the forerunner of the present magnificent water-distributing system of the islands.
The period from 1869 to 1876 was one of arduous struggle for the planters. Their very existence was at stake. The duty levied on imports by the United States cut their margins down to nothing, labor was scarce and the cost of obtaining it great, the rate of interest was from ten to twelve per cent, agents’ commissions for buying and selling ran from five to ten per cent; in short, many plantations were threatened with utter ruin, and so seriously discouraged did the business men become that the only gleam of hope for the salvation of the sugar industry seemed to be annexation.
Repeated efforts were made to negotiate a reciprocity treaty with the United States. Finally this was accomplished; the treaty was consummated in 1876 and a new Hawaii was born.