356 



land of Piihonua, Hawaii, in the Hilo Forest Reserve, on the 

 ground that the opening* up of the forest on that land would 

 be detrimental to the favorable conditions existing on the 

 drainage basin of one of the most valuable streams in th,e 

 Territory — the Wailuku River. 



The Coinnicrcial Forest. 



On the leeward side of the islands, however, and in dis- 

 tricts where because of topography and other factors there 

 is no permanently running water, a quite different condition 

 obtains. Here the commercial value of the forest takes first 

 place in an estimate of its worth. Especially is this true of 

 Hawaii and particularly of the Kona District, although it also 

 holds good of sections of Kau and Puna. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to remark that in the utilization of the forests in these 

 districts the work ought to be done with due regard to the 

 future. Except in localities where it is obvious that the land 

 can be used to better advantage for other purposes than grow- 

 ing trees, the indication is for methods of conservative lum- 

 bering, whereby the mature trees of merchantable value now 

 on the land may be removed in such a way that the forest 

 will be left in good producing condition, which will in time 

 permit the harvesting of other crops. Fortunately for the 

 Territory the owners of the large private estates are alive 

 to the importance of handling their forest properties in accord- 

 ance with the methods of practical forestry, so that there is 

 every reason to expect that the major part of the lumbering 

 done will be carried on in a sj^stematic and carefully planned 

 manner. This being the case the advent of this new industry 

 is to be welcomed as a development of much importance to 

 the Territory. 



TREE PLANTING ON WASTE LANDS. 



Outside of the work in connection with forest reserves ihe 

 energies of the Division of Forestry during the past year have 

 been mainly directed (i) toward cooperative assistance to 

 individuals and corporations desiring to plant trees and (2) to 

 the introduction of exotic trees andj shrubs of value to the 

 Territory. Under its ofifer of assistance to private owners 

 the Division of Forestry stands ready at all times to prepare 

 planting plans for persons desiring to establish groves or 

 plantations of forest trees, or who wish to do other forest 

 work. This matter should be of peculiar interest to the mem- 

 bers of this Association for there is hardly a sugar plantation 

 on the islands but that has some areas of waste land that 

 might well be devoted to the growing of trees. AVith the 

 increasing scarcity of fuel that is being felt in many districts 



