There is an record that in old times, in 1719, rice was taken from an abandoned unmanned boat, husk rice was burned, and two or three grains were sown in the valley. Thereafter, when westerners from Hawaii settled on the islands in 1830, they started cultivating various crops, including onions, pumpkins, watermelons and sweet potatoes. It is believed that coffee and pepper perished due to the adverse impact of wind and rain. The vegetable seeds distributed to the islanders by Perry in 1853 were cultivated by the islanders. (Ref. 1)

A survey conducted by Kurita Manjiro in 1862 reported the cultivation of vegetables including pumpkins, potatoes, and cucumbers, as well as fruits such as lemon and pineapples, and also tobacco. (Ref. 1, 2) These crops had been transplanted by immigrants and whaling ships or had been distributed by Perry. (Ref. 1)

Ref. 1: Edited by Yamagata Ishinosuke, History of the Bonin islands (1906), pp. 579-582

Ref. 2: “Ogasawara,” Historical records of the Ogasawara Islands, vol. 11

Related documents
An outline of Ogasawara Shoto (Tokyo Prefecture, 1929), p. 233