Soils of Palau — VESSEL AND SIMONSON 
paddies. Commercial fertilizers, insecticides, 
and the like, have not been available in the 
Palau Islands. Methods used by the Palauans 
to maintain and improve their soils as well as 
methods of tillage, planting, and harvesting 
are all common elements of a simple agri- 
cultural technology. 
'Potentialities 
Improvements in agricultural technology 
would permit increased food production from 
the soils of the Palau Islands. Some improve- 
ments are possible within existing patterns of 
operation. For example, better crop varieties, 
commercial fertilizers and insecticides, and 
simple machinery such as hand cultivators 
could be used in the present agriculture. Cer- 
tain shifts are thus possible without major 
changes in the agricultural arts. Such shifts 
would mean appreciable increases in food 
production, without realization of the full 
potentials of the soils. 
To achieve full potential production from 
soils of the Palaus, major changes from the 
present agricultural technology would be re- 
quired. What the potential may be can be 
inferred from current yields on Humic Latosols 
and Low Humic Latosols of Hawaii, soils 
which are comparable to those of the Palau 
Islands. Yields of 8 to 10 tons of sugar per 
acre are common on the Latosols of Hawaii 
(Cline et al. , 1939), where soil management 
includes heavy fertilization, irrigation, mech- 
anization, and many more of the management 
elements available to agriculture in a modern 
industrial society. The findings of modern 
science and the products of modern industry 
are widely used for crop production on Lato- 
sols in Hawaii. Thus, the level of agricultural 
technology is markedly different from the 
one prevailing in the Palau Islands. 
Experience in soil use and management 
does not seem directly transferable from Ha- 
waii to the Palaus, though major soils in the 
two island groups are the same. The total 
land area and the topography of the Palaus 
297 
impose certain limitations on agricultural 
production even with the best technology 
available. The small total area of the Palaus in 
itself restricts opportunities for the large scale 
agriculture in which sugar cane, cacao, and 
similar crops are commonly produced. Fur- 
thermore, the major soil associations of the 
Palau Islands are dominantly hilly to steep. 
Individual areas with level, undulating, or 
rolling topography are small. Proportions of 
the major soil associations with topography 
favorable for mechanization are therefore 
small. As a consequence, full use of the tools 
of soil management available in a modern in- 
dustrial society does not promise to become 
feasible in the Palaus. Something less than 
full use of those tools is more likely to be 
appropriate. Possibilities for commercial agri- 
cultural production seem limited, all in all, 
but there is opportunity for greater food 
production through improvements in soil use 
and management. 
REFERENCES 
Baldwin, Mark, Charles E. Kellogg, and 
James Thorp. 1938. Soil classification. IN 
Soils and Men. U. S. Dept. Agr., Yearbook 
for 1938. Pp. 979-1001. 
Casagrande, Arthur. 1932. Research on 
the Atterberg limits of soils. Public Roads 
13: 121-130. 
Cline, M. G., et al. 1939- Soil Survey of the 
Territory of Hawaii. U. S. Dept. Agr., 
No. 25. 
Corwin, Gilbert. 1951. "The Petrology and 
Structure of the Palau Volcanic Islands.” 
Unpublished thesis, 266 pp. University of 
Minnesota. 
Fosberg, F. R. 1946. Botanical Report on Mi- 
cronesia. U. S. Commercial Co., typescript 
microfilm, 350 pp. Library of Congress. 
Fruhauf, B. 1946. A study of lateritic soils. 
Highway Res. Bd. Proc. 26: 579-593. 
Kellogg, C. E. 1949. Preliminary sugges- 
tions for the classification and nomencla- 
ture of great soil groups in tropical and 
