NECESSITY FOE THE CLEARING OF LAND. 23 



the flow of water for fluming, and has decreased and made irregular the 

 rainfall, it is reasonable to expect that the removal of the entire forest 

 would make the water conditions so precarious as to reduce greatly 

 the productiveness of the plantations, if not to ruin them entireh^ 



NECESSITY FOB THE CLEARING OF LAND. 



Speaking of the islands as a wliole, it must not be supposed that 

 the removal of the forest has been unnecessar}^ or without beneficial 

 results. It was necessar}^ to clear land in Hawaii for tillage and 

 pasturage, just as it has been in the United States. Without the 

 clearing of large areas of forest land the products of the islands would 

 not, as at present, exceed 125,000,000 a yetiv. The islands would not, 

 as they do now, supph^ cattle for the present population. 



But the point has been reached in most districts where the removal 

 of the forest can not proceed except at the serious injur}^ of existing 

 industries. The best sugar-producing lands and most of the best graz- 

 ing lands are now cleared. The forest which remains is that which 

 controls, na}^, even in some cases gives origin to, the water suppl3\ 



IMPORTANCE OF REMAINING FORESTS. 



It can not be asserted that the native forests have great commercial 

 value, for the reason that the trees which compose them are not, for 

 the most part, commercially valuable. But for protecting the moun- 

 tain slopes, and for gathering and distributing a useful supply of 

 water, they have a value which, in the opinion of man}^, it is difficult 

 to overstate. The}^ lie directly above the cane fields, in many places 

 cover steep, even precipitous slopes, receive from 50 to 200 or more 

 inches of rainfall per 3^ear, and possess so great a retentive power that 

 they distribute very evenly this tremendous quantit}^ of water. 



The land which depends upon them for a regular supply of water 

 produces, in sugar and rice, crops of immense value. In 1903 the 

 value of the sugar exported from the islands amounted to $25,310,68J:, 

 or 96 per cent of the total exports. Sugar is the sustaining crop of 

 the islands. Other industries flourish large!}" because the sugar 

 industr}^ exists. 



Large tracts of land suitable for the production of sugar cane still 

 lie out of use because there is no water suppl}" for them. Man}" of 

 the lands already producing sugar would be far more productive with 

 a more abundant and regular water supply, as is evident from the 

 short crop in Kohala and Hamakua in 1902, which fell to 33 per cent 

 of the normal production because of drought. 



In so far as watersheds have been denuded, the results have been 

 disastrous and quickly felt in a dwindling water supply and the 

 decreased productiveness of land. On the other hand, the protection 



