CAUSES OF DECLINE. 17 



The trees are gone from the j^lain, and also from the western and 

 southern slopes of the mountains at the eastern end. Onl}^ a few 

 thousand acres of the highest south slopes and the precipitous north 

 slopes of the mountains are now covered by growing forest. Stretch- 

 ing around the living forest is a wide belt of leafless timber, which 

 has died within the last decade, but has not yet fallen. 



Each of the other islands exhibits just the same conditions. More 

 marked examples of declining forests can scarcel}^ be imagined than 

 exist in the districts of Hamakua and Kohala in Hawaii, and Kula in 

 Maui, in which one may pass through thousands of acres of totall}^ 

 dead forest into equal areas of which the forest is in a dying condi- 

 tion, and from these into the small remnant that yet remains thrift}^ 



No estimate can be given of the ratio of the present forest to that 

 of a century ago. The former area is unknown, and the present forests 

 are so inaccessible and so irregular in shape that a safe estimate can 

 not be made without much further studj^ But it is certain that the 

 present area, which may not be more than 20 per cent of the islands, 

 is but a small part of what existed at that time. This result has been 

 brought about by pe? ectly evident causes working unretarded year 

 by year. 



CAUSES OF DECLINE. 



The principal causes which have ])rought about the destruction of 

 the forests are stock, insects, grasses, fire, and clearing. 



STOCK. 



Cattle were introdaced into the islands late in the eighteenth cen- 

 tur3^ The}^ were turned out to run at large, and strict laws prohibited 

 their slaughter ^'"■r a number of years. Under these favorable condi- 

 tions they had increased to such nunibers by 1815 as to be a menace to 

 the forest. Their slaughter was no longer forbidden, but the}^ con- 

 tinued to multiply rapidh^ By 1850 boiling plants had been put up 

 in several places for the extraction of tallow, that being the only por- 

 tion of the animal having an}^ value. These plants were in continuous 

 use until the seventies, and indicate the great numbers of cattle which 

 must have existed during that time. Only within the last few years 

 have cattle been reduced in numbers to conform to the demands of the 

 islands, and placed within fenced paddocks. Numbers of wild cattle 

 still run at large in the various forests, although many have been 

 driven out or shot. Mr. A. W. Carter, manager of the Parker ranch, 

 on Hawaii, estimates the number of wild cattle on Mauna Kea to be 

 10,000. 



That cattle did the first serious damage to the forest can scarcely be 

 doubted when one considers their great numbers and the extent of the 

 forest. At a ver^^ early da}^ they must have gone through all the 

 23631— No. 48—04 2 



