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Contact: Steve Hirashima, 956-8698	Air Date: May 19, 1998

Sugar Water Hawaii's Plantation Ditches   It takes about 4,000 pounds of water or 500 gallons in order to produce one pound of sugar. About a million gallons of water each day is needed to irrigate 100 acres of sugarcane. Captain James Cook arrived in Kauai in 1778 and saw Hawaiians using extensive and sophisticated irrigation systems to cultivate taro. A century after Cook's arrival, sugar plantations dominated Hawaii's landscape. For seventy years, sugar was the single greatest industry in Hawaii. Learn more about this industry in UH Press's latest release Sugar Water: Hawaii's Planation Ditches. In the book, author Carol Wilcox tells the fascinating story about the sugar industry. She documents who profited, who lost and even who was used in the process. Sugar Water is full of charts, graphs and old photographs about the industry that no longer exists in Hawaii. This has been the University Report, join me tomorrow morning for the UH Today segment on NBC Hawaii News8, I'm Tracy Orillo Donovan.

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