Kauai has four or five sugar-plantations, some of which are now successful, though they were not always so.  Success has been attained by a resolute expenditure of money in irrigation ditches, which have made the land yield constant and remunerative crops.  But I could see here, as elsewhere, that close and careful management—­the eye of the master and the hand of the master—­insured the success.

But a large part of the island is given up to cattle.  In the mountains they have gone wild, and parties are made to hunt and shoot these.  But on the plains, of course, they are owned and herded.  The raising of cattle is an important and considerable business on all the Islands; and at present, I believe, the cattle owners are making a good deal of money.  In 1871, 19,384 hides were exported, as well as 185,240 pounds of tallow, 58,900 goat skins, and 471,706 pounds of wool.

The market for beef is limited, and the stockman boils down his beeves.  In many cases the best machinery is used for this purpose; the boiling is done in closed vessels, and the business is carried on with precision.  It seemed to me, who remembered the high price of beef in our Eastern States, like a sad waste to see a hundred head of fat steers driven into a corral, and one after the other knocked on the head, slaughtered, skinned, cut up, and put into the boilers to be turned into tallow.  But it is the only use to make of the beasts.  The refuse, however, is here always wasted, which appeared to me unnecessary, for it might well be applied to the enrichment of the pastures.

On many of the ranches you see open try pots used; it is a more wasteful process, I imagine, but it is simpler and requires a smaller expenditure of capital for machinery.  The cattle are managed here, as in California, on horseback and with the help of the lasso; and he who on our Pacific coast is called a vaquero, or cow-herd, is here known as a “Spaniol.”  Such a native man is pointed out to you as an excellent Spaniol.  This comes from the fact that in the early days of cattle-raising here the natives knew nothing of their management, and Spaniards had to be imported from California to teach them the business.  The native people now make excellent vaqueros; they are daring horsemen, and as they work cheaply and are easily fed and lodged, the management of cattle costs less here, I imagine, than even in California.  But it is necessary to take care that the pastures shall not be overstocked; and the vast number of horses kept by the natives is on all the Islands a serious injury to the pasturage of both sheep and cattle.