22 



The soil then remains exposed to the amehorativc influences of 

 the weather for a month or more. After this it may be har- 

 rowed or worked by hand, and brought into condition to be 

 soaked with *\vater and planted. The thorough plowing, airing, 

 and drying of the soil before replanting greatly increases the 

 yield, and greatly reduces the liability to disease. According to 

 Air. E. C. Bond, the natives of Kohala, Hawaii, in former times, 

 allowed the lo'i to remain fallow for two or three months after 

 each crop — long enough to allow the grass, weeds and other rub- 

 bish thrown into the lo'i to rot. Sometimes they added fresh soil 

 to the lo'i. The Chinese planters, on the other hand, are not in 

 the habit of giving the land a rest. Consequently, while the na- 

 tives raised good kalo with many ohd, the Chinese get small kalo 

 with almost no oha. 



In preparing the land for planting, cattle are sometimes turned 

 into the patch and driven around in it so as to break the clods 

 and puddle the bottom that it may hold water. In ancient times, 

 the solidifying of the bottom was done wholly by hand, large 

 stones or logs of wood being used as pounders. This work was 

 called pahikii or pakii'i. The ha-nin, which was the thick large 

 heavy end of- the coconut leaf, was used for beating the sides of 

 the patch. After the soil by these methods has been put into 

 good condition, and the embankments are solidly plastered with 

 mud, the field is harrowed and water is turned in to stand for 

 a few days. 



It is interesting to observe that the primitive Hawaiian "taro 

 patch" is very similar to the rice-patches of the Orient, in con- 

 struction, configuration, and maintenance. The following de- 

 scription of the rice fields of Japan, by ]\Ir. S. A. Knapp, of the 

 U. S. Dcpt. Agriculture, would apply perfectly to the wet-land 

 kalo fields of Hawaii. "The lands are divided by levees into 

 small fields. These are of no regular form . . . The 

 levees vary in width from 1 foot for field divisions and paths to 

 4 feet for main embankment roads. . . . Many of the rice 

 fields in Japan average scarcely more than 35 feet square, and 

 the boundary levees have such wavy lines that they look as if 

 made by hogs in a frolic. Under modern conditions the horse 

 and the ox could be used in tillage, but there are no paths which 

 such animals can traverse to these minute fields; and. if there 

 were, the tracts are too small for tlic use of plow or harrow, be- 

 cause there is no room to turn, much less to follow the angular 

 boundary lines. I f a farmer owns several tracts it is seldom that 

 they are adjacent. 



Mr. Knai)p describes a tract of twenty-five acres that formerly 

 contained 409 irregular fields. I'.y proper re])latting there are 

 ''now 138 regular fields, with ])erfectly straight wat(.'r courses 

 and roads wide enough for two loaded carts to ])ass 

 the area of arable land is preath increased bv breaking down 



