245 
KAHOOLAWE FOREST RESERVE. 
For some years the Territory of Hawaii has been confronted 
with a serious conservation problem in the island of Kahoolawe. 
As the result of long continued overgrazing this little island, 
once a valuable asset to the Territory, has become almost worth- 
less through erosion and loss of soil. The first step toward its 
reclamation has now been taken in the formal setting apart of the 
island as a forest reserve. This action is taken now ifi order 
that upon the expiration of the existing lease, some thirty 
months hence, Kahoolawe may be brought under the care and 
administration of the Territorial department best equipped to 
handle its reclamation the Board of Agriculture and Forestry. 
Following the prescribed method a public hearing to consider 
the setting apart of Kahoolawe as a forest reserve was held by 
the Governor of the Territory and the Board of Agriculture and 
Forestry on August 20, 1910, following which a proclamation 
has been signed by Governor Frear, setting apart the island as 
the Kahoolawe Forest Reserve. 
A statement of the Journal d’Agriculture Tropicale, that 
work had been done in Hawaii showing that the best soils 
for pineapples are those which contain 5.61 per cent, of man- 
ganese sesquioxide, while the least suitable contain only 
0.37 per cent, of this substance, is corrected by the Barbados 
Agricultural News on the authority of Press Bulletin No. 
23 of the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, “in which 
the work to which reference has been made is described. 
This shows^ that, while manganese in small quantities may 
act as a stimulant to plant growth, in large amounts it is 
extremely injurious.” 
Java white sugar has already turned out all the German 
product on the Indian markets, and to a great extent all the 
Austrian, according to an article by H. C. Prinsen Geerligs 
in the International Sugar Journal for June. Nevertheless, 
the production of yellow sugars has in no way suffered by 
the export of white, but has even increased. In 1900, Java 
produced 700,000 tons of refining sugar; last year the amount 
increased to 1,000,000 tons. The production of the island has 
tripled during the past twenty years, while in the same 
period the proportion of white sugar has risen from one-half 
per cent, of the total turnout to almost 20 per cent. Java’s 
capture of the Indian market for white sugar is due to 
special cateiing to the prevailing religion of the countrv. 
Sugar to be consumed in India must be free from contami- 
nation of animal matter, this being prohibited by the Hindus 
on account of their religious sentiments. Therefore the first 
