201 
Fornander  relates  that  in  1792  Vancouver  “gave  some  goats, 
fruit  and  garden  seeds”;  in  1793  he  landed  cattle  and  sheep  on 
Hawaii,  to  be  tabued  for  ten  years;  and  in  1794  brought  more 
cattle.  In  1803  the  first  horse  was  landed,  “exciting  mingled 
terror  and  admiration  by  its  beauty  and  mettle.”  Who  could 
then  have  foreseen  that  in  less  than  half  a century  thousands  of 
wild  cattle  would  have  been  found  on  the  table  land  at  the  foot  of. 
Mauna  Kea,  and  in  many  other  places  as  well,  and  that  horses, 
sheep  and  especially  goats  would  all  have  so  multiplied  and  run 
wild  as  to  have  become  a serious  menace  to  the  forests  on  the  dif- 
ferent islands? 
Many  stories  could  be  told  to  illustrate  this  fact,  but  only  one 
need  be  mentioned.  In  one  district  alone  of  Kauai,  over 
two  thousand  wild  horses,  besides  cattle,  were  to  be  found  within 
a limited  area,  and  as  it  was  absolutely  necessary  to  get  rid  of  a 
large  number,  as  many  as  possible  were  driven  into  a corral  and 
any  Hawaiian  was  given  his  choice  of  the  first  six  he  could  lasso, 
those  discarded  being  shot  on  the  spot. 
Though  animals  have  been  primarily  the  cause  of  deforestation, 
and  fires  in  various  sections  have  destroyed  great  tracts  of  forest, 
“under  normal  conditions,  protection  from  livestock  would  be 
sufficient  precaution,  as  the  forests  would  re-seed  themselves ; this, 
however,  for  several  reasons  does  not  take  place  in  Hawaii.  The 
multitudinous  insects  which  devour  the  forests  and  what  is 
thought  by  some  to  be  a root  fungus  which  is  killing  the  natural 
woods  by  thousands  of  acres  in  a number  of  localities,  also  the 
heavy  growth  of  the  Hilo  grass  and  other  coarse  grasses  which  so 
cover  the  ground  that  seeds  cannot  germinate,  are  rapidly  de- 
stroying forests  in  regions  where  water  conservation  is  most 
needed.”  The  Planters’  Experiment  Station,  it  may  be  said 
here,  is  now  studying  the  question  of  means  to  neutralize  the 
deadly  effects  of  insects  and  other  such  destructive  agents. 
Mr.  Hosmer  divides  the  forest  in  general  into  “three  main  types, 
the  koa  and  ohia  forest  lying  between  the  elevation  of  two  and  six 
thousand  feet ; the  mamani  forest,  a pure  stand  of  another  native 
Hawaiian  tree  found  on  the  upper  slopes  of  the  higher  moun- 
tains (excellent  fence  posts  are  made  of  this  wood)  ; and  the  in- 
troduced algaroba  forest  which  occurs  at  the  lower  levels  on  the 
leeward  side  of  each  of  the  larger  islands.”  Of  the  algaroba’s 
great  value  to  Hawaii  nei,  its  wood  for  fuel,  its  pods  for  stock 
feed  and  its  blossoms  for  honey,  we  all  know. 
Mr.  Hosmer,  from  whom  I freely  quote,  also  divides  the  forests 
of  Hawaii  into  two  classes,  the  water-bearing  and  the  commer- 
cial forest.  “The  latter  lies  for  the  most  part  on  the  leeward  side 
of  the  Island  of  Hawaii,  where  from  the  nature  of  the  topography 
and  the  remarkable  porosity  of  rock  and  soil,  there  are  no  perma- 
nently running  streams  and  only  occasional  springs.  In  such 
districts  it  is  obvious  that  the  protection  of  watersheds  does  not 
figure ; consequently  the  chief  value  of  this  forest  lies  in  the  wood 
