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Fiscal Year Transactions 



REPORT OF THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF 

 AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY FOR THE FISCAL 

 YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 1917. 



Changes in the organization of this Board, which looks out for 

 the auxihary interests of pure agriculture in the Territory, made 

 effective by the 1917 session of the Legislature, resulted in the 

 transfer on March 23, 1917, of the Division of Hydrography to 

 the Commissioner of Public Lands, to whose work hydrographic 

 activities are now more closely related, and provided for the tak- 

 ing over by this Board of the Territorial Marketing Division on 

 July 1, 1917, and on the same date for the separation, in the in- 

 terests of efficiency, of the old Division of Entomology into a 

 Division of Plant Inspection to care for plant quarantine and in- 

 spection to prevent injurious insects from entering the Territory 

 and a Division of Entomology to care for the work of beneficial 

 insect introduction, propagation and distribution, suppressing in- 

 jurious insects already here, and other general entomological 

 work. The Board, as reorganized, now consists of five divisions 

 — Forestry, Plant Inspection, Entomology, Animal Industry, and 

 Marketing, all of which are supported by specific appropriation 

 out of the general revenues. 



Forestry. 



The increasing value of water in these Islands, not only for the 

 irrigation of agricultural fields, but also to meet the domestic needs 

 of a growing population, has already justified the activities of the 

 Division of Forestry during the past fourteen years in the effort 

 to conserve and increase the sources of water supply by forest 

 protection and extension. The division has, therefore, had this 

 same object in view during the past year and in seeking to ac- 

 complish it has emphasized the work of fence building to keep 

 stock from the native forests, the expansion of the field pro- 

 tective organization, the inclusion of additional forest areas in 

 the reserve system, and the extension of the forests by actual tree 

 planting. 



During the fiscal year just ended 11.43 miles of new fences 

 were constructed on forest reserve boundaries in Lualualei, Pa- 

 lolo, Makiki and Manoa valleys on Oahu and at the Olaa Forest 

 Park and Upper Olaa reserves and at Kawaihae on Hawaii. 

 Stretches of fences in Nuuanu, Oahu, and at Piha, Hawaii, 

 amounting to 2.12 miles, were also repaired, making a total of 

 over thirteen and a half miles of boundary effectively guarded 

 against damaging stock. 



One new forest ranger was appointed during the year and was 

 assigned to Maui. The present force of six rangers on the four 



