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PACIFIC SCIENCE, VoL XII, October, 1958 
lands. Improved varieties with higher starch 
contents were brought in by the Japanese 
who raised cassava for export. The crop 
grows best during the driest season of the 
year, when fungus diseases are the least active. 
It is grown mainly on the Latosols but to some 
extent on Alluvial Soils. 
Third in importance among food crops are 
sweet potatoes, which were introduced by the 
Spaniards. Sweet potatoes are produced by 
the same methods as cassava. They are grown 
on the Latosols, some Alluvial Soils, and 
Shioya sand. 
Minor crops are coconuts, sugar cane, Ta- 
hitian chestnuts, breadfruit, jakfruit, pine- 
apples, oranges, mangoes, papayas, sauersop, 
and pandanus. Coconut plantations were rela- 
tively important at one time but the invasion 
of the rhinoceros beetle has reduced produc- 
tion to very low levels and forced abandon- 
ment of most groves. Sugar cane, pineapples, 
and papayas are grown as scattered plants in 
a patch of cassava, sweet potatoes, or both. 
Orange and mango trees producing food are 
commonly lone plants in or near the villages, 
whereas chestnuts, breadfruit, jakfruit, sauer- 
sop, and pandanus grow wild in the savannas 
and forests. 
Methods 
Shifting cultivation is the general practice 
in the production of food crops on the Lato- 
sols of the Palau Islands. Most areas of Lato- 
sols readily accessible to villages are now in 
savanna vegetation. Burning of the grass is 
therefore the first step in clearing a garden 
patch. A few areas of Latosols as well as most 
of the smooth stony land is in forest or brush. 
Clearing of a garden then requires the cutting 
of saplings, vines, and brush, usually done 
with a large knife or machete. After the sa- 
vanna is burned or the forest cut, the soil is 
stirred with a simple hoe and crops are planted. 
All tillage, planting, and harvesting in the 
Palau Islands are done by hand. No draft ani- 
mals were on the islands in 1948 nor had they 
been used in the past. Cultivation of the soil 
is by means of a four-pronged hoe introduced 
by the Japanese. Tillage consists of stirring 
of the soil to shallow depths. Subsequently, 
slips or seeds are planted. Vegetative repro- 
duction by means of slips is the more com- 
mon practice. 
Garden patches on Latosols and some on 
Alluvial Soils and smooth stony land are usu- 
ally planted to cassava or sweet potatoes. 
Some gardens may have both crops growing 
at the same time, plus scattered individual 
plants of other crop species. A single garden 
may be used for cassava or sweet potatoes 
exclusively, or the two may be alternated. 
After the plants become ripe they are har- 
vested a few at a time, as needed by the family. 
The patch is replanted with cassava or sweet 
potatoes after all of one crop has been har- 
vested. This process is then repeated until 
yields in that one garden patch begin to drop. 
Once the yields have fallen, the patch is 
abandoned and a new one is cleared either by 
fire or knife. The whole process is then re- 
peated once more in the new clearing. 
Continuous growing of taro is common 
practice on the Organic Soils and the poorly 
drained Alluvial Soils. The planting, weeding, 
and harvesting of taro are the responsibility of 
the women in the families, who also own the 
taro paddies. The paddies used by a single 
family are divided into a number of segments 
and planted so that one segment is always 
ready for harvest. Thus, the plants in different 
segments of one paddy may be in all stages 
of growth from slips that have just been 
placed into the soil to ripe plants awaiting 
harvest. After all of the plants in a given seg- 
ment have been harvested, that segment is 
again replanted while harvest begins in 
another part of the paddy. Taro paddies 
commonly receive more attention than do 
upland gardens because of their greater im- 
portance in food production. 
Efforts are made by the Palauans to incor- 
porate decayed leaves and grass as well as 
wood ashes into the soils, especially in taro 
