108 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



employment, until now there is not sufficient food produced to properly 

 sustain the inhabitants, llice and other foodstutl's are imported from 

 Japan. The internal development work can not be continued on the 

 same scale as formerly, and somethino- must be done to get the people 

 back to their farms. Attempts will be made to introduce new meth- 

 ods of cultivation, new varieties of standard tropical crops, and 

 improved live stock, and to take up breeding and selection in con- 

 nection with plants and animals. As rapidly as ])romising material 

 is secured in quantity, the surplus will be distributed for the benefit 

 of the farmers. 



AMiile the island is volcanic in origin, the hills are low, none of 

 them exceeding 1,500 feet in elevation, and at least 05 per cent of the 

 land is believed to be capable of cultivation. The renuiinder is nearly 

 all forested with valuable timber or could be reforested at compara- 

 tively little expense. The rainfall of the island averages nearly 100 

 inches per annum, and while most of it falls during July to Xovem- 

 ber, the so-called rainy season, there are sufficient showers during the 

 other months to permit of crop growing without irrigation. There 

 are now some attempts at growing corn, rice, cotfee, cacao, and sugar 

 cane, with extensive plantings of l^ananas, cocoanut, and breadfruit 

 trees. In a smaller way, some beans, tobacco, sweet potatoes, yams, 

 etc., are grown and it is with these crops that the first work will be 

 done. Considerable introductory work had already been carried on 

 in cooperation with the Hawaii Station, and this will be continued 

 until the best of the agricultural and horticultural products of that 

 Territory are represented in Guam. 



There appears to be a woeful lack of cultivated grasses and of pas- 

 tures, except in the savannas, which are covered with coarse grass 

 that is not palatable to stock except for a short time. Already some 

 of the varieties of grass that have proved especially adapted to the 

 tropical regions of Hawaii and the Philippines have been sent to 

 Guam, and others will be added as fast as possible. The introduction 

 of leguminous plants in cropping will undoubtedly prove of benefit 

 not only for the forage they will produce, but for their renovating 

 power upon lands that have become impoverished by a long-continued 

 cropping without adequate preparation of the soil. 



For several years a pest of the cocoanut trees seemed to threaten the 

 most important industry of the island. It is a kind of mealy bug that 

 attacks the young plants within the leaf sheath, and when present in 

 great numbers often destroys the plant. This was thought to be one 

 of the first problems needing attention, but- there appears to be evi- 

 dence that it is not gaining in importance and that either through 

 parasitism or some other cause its threatened invasion is at least tem- 

 porarily checked. How^ever, studies have been begun upon the insect, 

 and should it again appear in abundance means for its control will 

 probably be at hand. 



