26 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



JAKUARY, 1917 



One of Mr. Gilbert's pig-fences. The small trees just back of the fence are small algaroba-trees, only 

 four months from seed. These are planted closely together for the express purpose of making a " pig-proof " 

 fence in three or four years. The trees also, a few years later, furnish food for the pigs which are very fond 

 of the algaroba beans, and fatten readily on them. 



110 doubt there is less honey-dew honey since 

 the leaf-hopper, the pest that at one time 

 threatened the extinction of the cane-sugar 

 industry of the islands, has been brought 

 under control. 



SOME GENERAL DATA ON HAWAIIAN ALGAROBA 



When I started to collect algaroba data 

 I asked Oswald St. John Grilbert, manager 

 of the Sandwich Island Honey Co., and 

 Treasurer of the Algaroba Feed Company, 

 both Hawaiian corporations, and who is, 

 perhaps, the best-posted man on the subject 

 of algaroba in Honolulu, to give me his 

 estimate as to the number of acres of al- 

 garoba on Oahu; the amount of beans that 

 a tree would produce; how long it takes a 

 tree to bear ; how heavy a honey-yiekler the 

 algaroba is; and the amount of algaroba 

 being now planted. The figures Mr. Gil- 

 bert furnished me are as follows: 



AS TO EXTENT OF THE ALGAROBA FORESTS 



There are in the neighborhood of 17,000 

 acres of algaroba on the island of Oahu. 

 As to the amount of beans that a tree would 

 produce, his estimate is that a tree with a 

 Ihirty-foot spread, planted from select seed, 

 under normal conditions, will produce ap- 



proximately five hundred pounds of beans. 

 As to the annual crop, many of the trees 

 are yet small, and his estimate of the 

 annual crop for Oahu is approximately 

 25,000 tons. As to how many years it takes 

 before a tree will produce pods, he replied 

 that a tree from selected seed should pro- 

 duce pods in from four to six years. It 

 is a rather difficult matter to get at the 

 amount of honey produced, yet he thinks 

 that a tree with a thirty-foot spread of 

 branches would produce two and a half 

 pounds of honey in a normal year. In the 

 matter of the amount of algaroba being 

 now planted, he slated that it is still being 

 spread by cattle, the reason being that, as 

 most of the stock pick up the pods from the 

 ground underneath the tree, the seeds, being 

 uncracked, are not digested. In the matter of 

 systematic planting and caring for algaro- 

 ba-trees, the Gilbert & Dowsetts interests 

 are the only people on Oahu who are doing* 

 it. During the year 1916, prior to Octo- 

 ber 1, they had planted under his supervision 

 over a hundred thousand algaroba - trees. 

 These trees, were planted for s^ofk food, 

 firewood, and fen- honey. 

 Honolulu, Hawaii, Oct. 28. 



