Page:Off For Hawaii.djvu/234

216 course was through a well-wooded section of country. Palms were everywhere in evidence, and the plantains and smaller trees grew so close to the roadway that their branches continually swept our heads. Occasionally we came upon cleared patches where coffee plantations had been started.

"These people seem to grow but three things: rice, sugar, and coffee," remarked Dan, as we moved along at an easy gait. "In all of our travels I haven't seen but four vegetable gardens."

"The islanders are coffee and sugar mad, so I was told in Honolulu," returned Oliver. "They could raise all sorts of green stuff here, and yet they import thousands of dollars' worth of canned goods annually from the United States!"

"I think things will change after the United States authorities get to work," I ventured. "I understand that at present a small farmer hasn't hardly any show. He can't even get a footing on Kauai, for the whole of the island is owned by six or seven big land-holders. And the same is true of all of the other islands but the one we are on."

As we had resolved to take it easy, we stopped, about ten o'clock, at the home of a Japanese farmer, who owned one of the prettiest