The Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association Experiment Station (also known as HSPA Experiment Station and Experiment Station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association; 1895–1996) was located in Makiki, Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands. It was established in 1895 by the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association (HSPA), an unincorporated, voluntary organization. With its establishment, there began a systematic examination of soils, together with the collection of data as to rainfall and temperature, which was the basis of much of the fertilizing that was done since that time. It was due in a very great measure to these investigations of the conditions of each plantation that the fertilizers used in one district were different from those used in another district, and that there was a constant tendency toward high-grade fertilizers which were specially prepared for the plantations where they were to be applied. In 1996, the HSPA Experiment Station became a part of the Hawaiian Agriculture Research Center (HARC).
Establishment The history of this Experiment Station dates from 1894, when the Planters' Labor and Supply Company determined to engage an experienced agricultural chemist to organize an experiment station and to act as a technical adviser to the plantation managers of the archipelago. The resolution made, it was necessary to find a man well qualified to the position. Advice was sought from an older established industry in Louisiana, where Dr. William Carter Stubbs, the doyen of sugar cane experimentalists, had already, for a decade, been conducting experiments at Audubon Park. The choice of Dr. Stubbs, fell upon Dr. Walter Maxwell, who even at that time had already achieved an enviable reputation as an agricultural chemist. Educated at the Zurich Polytechnic, Maxwell entered at an early age the service of the United States Department of Agriculture at Washington, D.C. and was detailed almost exclusively on sugar work. The two years previous to his arrival in the Hawaiian Islands had been spent in Louisiana in association with Dr. Stubbs; he was thus well fitted for the organization of, and pioneer work connected with, a new experiment station.
Maxwell years Maxwell's tensure lasted from 1895 to 1900, during which period time, he made an extensive soil survey of the Hawaiian islands. The results of this study were found in Lavas and Soils of the Hawaiian Islands. In addition, a detailed study of a number of cane varieties was made and much valuable information of a basic character on plant transpiration and the utilization of water in the production of cane crop was accumulated. Bulletin No. 90 of the Office of Experiment Stations in the United States Department of Agriculture, entitled "Irrigation in the Hawaiian Islands" contains in detailed form the results of Maxwell's studies in this direction.
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