NEWS AND NOTES 



3/1 



after which it becomes a highly acceptable 

 ■object of diet for hogs. 



Peter Lee, an American, has a ranch right 

 on the edge of the great crater of Kilauea, 

 .on the Island of Hawaii, some 200 miles 

 from Honolulu. All about the tremendous 

 •cauldron of nature spread dense forests for 

 many miles down the easy slope of the 

 mountain's sides. Very much of this tangle 

 of vegetation is made up of great tree ferns, 

 jnany of which tower fifty feet or more in 

 the air, like great feather dusters. The 

 great trunk or stem of this fern, frequently 

 a foot or more in diameter, is composed of 

 a pulpy, fibrous mass enclosed in a hairy 

 harder covering. Peter Lee discovered that 

 this pulp contains a large amount of starches 

 and sugars, and that by steaming or cooking 

 these are rendered soft, and are greedily 

 eaten by the hogs. 



In many places about the volcano, some- 

 times several miles from the active central 

 pit, cracks have formed in the hardened lava 

 surface which covers the whole mountain, 

 and from these fissures heat and steam per- 

 petually escape. To construct a gridiron 

 over one of these heat cracks, and to pile 

 upon it the fern-trunks, cut into cord-wood 

 lengths, was the acme of simplicity and ef- 

 fectiveness. In the course of a few days 

 the steam has thoroughly softened and 

 cooked the ferns, and all that remains to do 

 IS to split each stem with an ax, when 

 the swine will devour them voraciously. 



Dr. E. V. Wilcox, director of the Hawaii 

 Experiment Station, believes that Hawaii's 

 ferns may come to be of considerable eco- 

 nomic importance as a stock food. Fern 

 roots have had some value in this line in 

 some parts of the Northwest, where the 

 growth is comparatively scanty, and if the 

 food value of Hawaiian ferns prove as high, 

 large tracts of forest land are likely to 

 acquire a new value. 



J^ )^ &' 



Mr, Newell's Visit to Hawaii 



In the Fifth Report of the Board of Com- 

 missioners of Agriculture and Forestry of 

 the Territory of Hawaii occurs this para- 

 graph, which, in view of Mr. Newell's long 

 and important connection with the American 

 Forestry Association, should be of especial 

 interest to the readers of Conservation : 



"The event of greatest importance in con- 

 servation matters in Hawaii during 1908 was 

 unquestionably the visit to the islands in the 

 autumn months of Hon. F. H. Newell, Di- 

 rector of the United States Reclamation 

 Service. Following almost immediately Sec- 

 retary Garfield's return to the mainland, it 

 shows that Hawaii's claims for recognition 

 are not only being heard but responded to 

 from Washington. Already Mr. Newell has 

 been of signal assistance to the territory in 

 getting the plans for a hydrographic survey 

 definitely under way. The coming year will 



see no small development along that line. All 

 of which leads to making Hawaii a better 

 place to live in and consequently to its de- 

 velopment as a true American community. 



"At the invitation of the governor, the 

 Superintendent of Forestry accompanied 

 Governor Frear and Mr. Newell on a por- 

 tion of their tour of the other islands, going 

 with the party to Molokai and Kauai. On 

 these trips it was possible to discuss with 

 Mr. Newell a number of forest problems 

 on the ground. Needless to say, many valu- 

 able suggestions was one result of these in- 

 formal conferences." 



«? !^ «r' 



Conservation in Hawaii 



On March i last the Governor of Hawaii 

 and his conferees who attended the Gov- 

 ernors' Conference in Washington last May 

 appeared before the Hawaiian legislature and 

 delivered a series of addresses. From these 

 extracts are taken. Gov. Walter F. Frear 

 said, among other things : 



"Congress in general believes in helping 

 states and territories that help themselves. 

 It is now helping us in manj' ways. It is 

 beginning to help us in the matter of forests, 

 which is one of our most important natural 

 resources, not merely for the purpose of the 

 timber, but mainly for the purpose of con- 

 serving the water, for purposes of irrigation 

 and power and domestic use. We need to 

 experiment with a view to obtaining new 

 varieties of trees which will be good for 

 timber and which will grow at our high ele- 

 vations, particularly where now scarcely any- 

 thing will grow." 



Mr. Ralph S. Hosmer, Superintendent of 

 Forestry, and chairman of the Territorial 

 Conservation Commission, says, in part: 



"Fortunately, on the windward side of the 

 islands there are numerous streams, which, 

 with the artesian water in other places, are 

 sufficient to supply most of the needs for 

 water if the forests and the streams are han- 

 dled in a judicious manner. Because of the 

 steep, short water-sheds, it is essential that 

 there be maintained a cover of vegetation on 

 the catchment basins of the water-sheds. 

 Without such a cover of vegetation, the 

 water quicklj' runs away, not onlj- being 

 lost to human use, but doing considerable 

 damage through the erosion of the upper 

 parts of the valleys and the flooding of val- 

 uable lands below. The Hawaiian forest is 

 admirably adapted to act as a protective 

 cover on the water-sheds. When the water- 

 shed is covered with vegetation the dense 

 tangle of trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, and 

 moss retards the run-ofif, prevents erosion 

 and stores up the rainfall. The water is 

 then gradually given out to feed the springs 

 and streams, which results in a fairly con- 

 stant flow. The native forest is the best 

 possible cover for the water-shed. Conse- 

 quently, in view of the value of water to 



