HAWAII EXPERIMENT STATION. 399 



row strip, back along some valley, to where it narrows to its source 

 in the mountain rani^o. Because of this orio-inal method of dividinsr 

 the land, most of the i-anges contain mountain pastures, whei'e the 

 veiretation is rank and where rain falls in many cases almost continu- 

 ouslv throu<>h<)ut the \ear; and dry and almost rainless belts, with 

 scant}' yegetation along the coast. The middle ranges, between 2,000 

 and 5,000 feet elevation, are usually the best. In studying the plant 

 growth of these island i-anges the most apparent fact is that there are 

 so few species of gras.s. Two introduced forms almost completely 

 occupy the land. The Manienie or Bermuda grass of the southern 

 United States has overrun the land from the seacoast to an elevation 

 of 4,000 feet. Above this altitude the Hilo grass, PaHpalvm conjwjn- 

 turn^ one of the water gras.ses, occupies the land almost to the exclu- 

 sion of other species. These two foreign grasses have almost entirely 

 run out the native grass flora, and on some of the richer and more 

 open ranges one may ride all day without seeing any other grass 

 which constitutes any considerable proportion of the feed. Again 

 there are districts, especially along the leeward coasts of the different 

 islands, where the rainfall is so slight that none of the turf-forming 

 grass can grow. There are many examples of such lands practically 

 without vegetation, except after the winter rains. Practically, the 

 only rains which may be dei)ended upon are tlu^ Kona or southerly 

 storms, during the winter season. The rainfall in some of these dis- 

 tricts, es})ecially to the h^eward of the three high mountain peaks, Halia- 

 kala. Mauna Loa. and ^launa Kea, averages less than 10 inches per 

 annum, with occasional seasons when no rain falls at all. From such 

 practically rainless regions there is every gradation of rainfall up to 

 300 inches per annum, and here, as in all other countries, the amount 

 of rainfall governs the amount and ([uality of the vegetation. In the 

 early days one of the native grasses, known as Pili {ILterojuK/on con- 

 toytiis)^ a species which is also common in the southwestern United 

 States, was a])undant on the leeward coasts at an elevation of from 

 200 to 1,000 feet above sea level. However, overstocking has almost 

 entirely destroyed this grass. 



Here, as in the Rocky Mountain region, the upper mountain pas- 

 tures, with their luxuriant forage, are very satisfactory for raising 

 young stock, but to fatten cattle for the market they must be driven 

 down to the pastures at a lower elevation. The greatest num])er of 

 species of plants which are eaten by stock are found at the higher 

 elevations. The fattening ])astures contain principally the one species 

 of grass only, the Manienie, One of the chief problems is to intro- 

 duce variet}' on this diy-Jand pasture by the introduction of grass aiid 

 forage plants from othei" semiarid regions. A cooperative experi- 

 ment was arranged with Trot'. .1. W. Spillman. in charge of the grass 

 and forage plant investigations of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



