23 



fore it reached the sea. The rainfall ceased. The foliage of the low- 

 lands withered. And the land that once was fitted to be the abode of 

 man, became a desert waste. 



For all the purposes of desolation, the patient plodding cow, aided 

 and abetted by man, has proved herself more dangerous than the ele- 

 mental forces of nature. On the average each year, she can sweep 

 through five acres of forest land more destructively than a cyclone. 

 What wonder that the agricultural Egyptians fell foul of the pastoral 

 Hebrews, and set them to making bricks without straw upon the lands 

 their herds had laid waste ! 



In the plantation district the trees have been cleared away, that 

 cane might be planted. And vast quantities of wood have been used 

 for fuel. The time was when cane juice was boiled into sugar in open 

 train over wood fires. So all the lowland has been shorn of its trees, 

 and the forest belt in these more fertile parts is each year becoming 

 more distant. 



All through North Kohala near the sea, the rainfall is not only much 

 less than in former years, but it is also capricious. Its coming is so 

 very uncertain that its uncertainty has become proverbial. Streams 

 that once ran all the year, now run only for a few months or even 

 weeks. Other streams that start promisingly from the distant hills 

 dry up and disappear long before they reach the sea. 



There may be cosmic influences that disturb the rainfall from time 

 to time. But there seems no doubt that the rapid destruction of the 

 forests has been the main cause of our lack of moisture. And the 

 work of destruction is still going on. The cattle and other animals 

 still continue their desolating inroads upon the timbered lands and the 

 forest belt is still retreating. 



Here and there a land owner is making a tentative experiment in 

 the planting of a little grove of trees. And here and there a rancher 

 is making some effort to fence in and save the timber still remaining. 

 But unless the Government will offer some assistance, or at least, sys- 

 tematize the work, the damage will undoubtedly increase as the years 

 roll on. J. Barnett. 



Kohala, August, 1893. 



STRAWBERRIES ON VARIOUS SOILS. 



Unlike market growers, private gardeners have difficulties to sur- 

 mount in the cultivation of Strawberries which the former are not 

 likely to have, and that is in the nature of the soil. A grower for 

 market on a fairly large scale will not attempt the cultivation of this 

 fruit unless the soil should be suitable whereas the private grower has 

 to provide Strawberries whatever the soil may be. The methods of 

 the private grower again are also often ridiculed, such for instance, as 

 the trouble taken in the preparation of the soil, and which the market 

 grower may think quite unnecessary. The market grower, again, 

 grows but one or two varieties, and such as are known to succeed well 

 in the soil or district, but the private grower has to maintain a suc- 

 cession as long as possible, consequently varieties have to be grown 

 which would not thrive well with the market grower uuder the rough- 

 and-ready method of field culture. I am ready to admit that in many 

 instances a lot of unnecessary trouble is undoubtedly taken in the 



