- Hawaii badly needed another source of income besides sugar cane, then their principal crop.
- When sugar prices were up, everybody had money, when they fell, Hawaiians were broke. Millions had been spent experimenting with new crops. Jim Dole decided that pineapple was the crop.
- Captain John Kidwell, an English settler in Hawaii, had imported slips from Jamaica and Australia some time before, and demonstrated that pineapples would thrive in Hawaii’s red soil. But there was no market for his fruit.
- However, that did not stop Jim Dole he announced that he would soon be growing pineapples by the million. He would then market them.
- Dole set out 75,000 plants on 12 acres at Wahiawa on Oahu Island. The Islanders said Dole was wasting his time.
- Hawaiians don’t belittle Jim Doyle’s dream. Since 1901 the fabulous and exotic fruit has brought more than two thousand million dollars to Hawaii. The modest planting he launched at Wahiawa grew to 73,000 acres, which produce 70 per cent of the world’s supply of tinned pineapple.
- The Hawaiian Pineapple Company he founded was Hawaii’s largest employer. Click on link to read the rest of the article.
http://hubpages.com/travel/Hawaiis-Pineapple-Plantation-Makes-Way-for-Playground-for-the-Rich
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