Captain Hufnagel was credited with a number of innovations in colonial era agriculture
Hufnagel-Betham Family Collection , photographer A . J . Tattersall
With most of the DH & PG land holdings uncultivated , Vailele was one of the jewels in the crown . All the more reason to admire Kurt Hufnagel ’ s unchallenged 30-year tenure as manager . As well as pioneering industrialscale copra drying , he was credited with two other significant innovations in colonial era agriculture in Samoa – the proving of drilling for artesian well water , and the perfecting of cocoa bean processing to obtain the highest grade cocoa .
Hufnagel rejected the conventional wisdom that Samoan soils were unsuitable for the retention of artesian well water . He imported a drill , set it to work and discovered perfect drinking water at depths below sea level . After his success , wells were drilled all over Samoa and helped relieve the dire water shortages that occurred during dry spells .
Kurt had been the first to plant cocoa in Samoa in 1884 but not much is known about his pioneering work on bean processing . It was referred to in glowing , but general , terms by Karl Hanssen in his speech for the Captain ’ s 25-year anniversary . It may have had to do with Hufnagel ’ s method for fermenting the beans ( which is essentially a sweating process ) or , more probably , with the drying , which – again – Hufnagel carried out in the hot air kilns under controlled , ‘ brute force ’ conditions . Despite this success with cocoa , by the time of his retirement in 1911 most of it had gone from Vailele ( only about 8 acres left ) with about 30 acres under coffee , 27 acres under rubber and the remaining 2,200 or so acres in coconuts .
The photo at left shows cocoa beans drying in the sun , the natural way , on the Apia foreshore near the courthouse , probably in the early 1900 ’ s .
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