MESQUITE 
595 
mesquite, catsclaw, and arrowhead. At 
( Casa Grande mesquite and catsclaw are the 
chief dependence of the beekeeper. At 
Well ton also it is the most reliable honey 
plant for surplus. At Polonias in the east¬ 
ern part of Yuma County there is an api¬ 
ary of 65 colonies, which stores about a 
can of honey per colony from mesquite. 
In midsummer it becomes very hot and 
dry on the deserts; and, as there are no 
other honey plants and no honey flow of 
any kind, the bees must depend on the 
stores gathered earlier in the season or die 
of starvation. Along the Colorado River 
in the eastern portion of Imperial and Riv¬ 
erside Counties, California, there is an ex¬ 
tensive growth of mesquite which yields a 
large early honey flow. The Liguanea 
Plain on the south side of the Island of 
Jamaica is largely covered with a third 
species of mesquite (Prosopis juliflora). 
MESQUITE IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
In the Hawaiian Islands mesquite is not 
only the chief but almost the only source 
of floral honey. Here it is called algaroba, 
or in the native tongue, keawe. The his¬ 
tory of honey plants offers no more inter¬ 
esting chapter than that describing the in¬ 
troduction of this tree and its rapid in¬ 
crease, until today it yields annually more 
than 200 tons of algaroba honey, and has 
rendered beekeeping profitable in sections 
of the islands where previously little honey 
was stored. In earlier times the apiaries 
seldom exceeded 50 colonies, and they were 
located near forest trees growing in the 
mountains, which yielded comparatively 
little nectar. 
About 1828 the seed was brought from 
the Royal Gardens of Paris by Father 
Bachelot, founder of the Roman Catholic 
missions. Once introduced the mesquite in¬ 
creased with remarkable rapidity. It thrives 
from the level of the seacoast, where the 
spray of the waves falls on its foliage, up 
to an altitude of 2,000 feet, but succeeds 
best at a slight elevation in a semiarid cli¬ 
mate. As the Plawaiian Islands are of re¬ 
cent volcanic origin the kinds of soil here 
are limited. The algaroba forests are con¬ 
fined chiefly to the lee or western side of 
the islands. The reason for this is that the 
windward or eastern side is exposed to the 
trade winds, which blow, with few excep¬ 
tions, during the entire year. As the result 
of these winds the climate on one side of 
the islands is entirely different from that 
on the other side, even in the case of an 
island that is only a few miles across. On 
the windward side there is a heavy rain¬ 
fall, in some places in excess of 200 inches 
for the year, and it may exceed 400 inches. 
On the lee side there is much less rain, or 
the climate may be so arid that the land in 
places may be little better than a desert. 
Where there is much rain the mesquite is 
entirely absent or does not grow well. 
On the western side of the islands there 
are vast forests of algaroba trees covering 
thousands of acres. On the island of Oahu 
alone there are not far from 17,000 acres. 
Cattle are continually disseminating the 
seed, and the number of trees is also large¬ 
ly increased by systematic planting. Prior 
to October, 1916, there were planted over 
100,000 trees in Oahu. It has been esti¬ 
mated that a tree with a 30-foot spread of 
branches will produce 2^2 pounds of hon¬ 
ey in a normal year. One strip of algar¬ 
oba forest in Molokai supports nearly 2,000 
colonies. It will not average more than 
half a mile in width, and about 30 miles of 
it are used for bees. Of the 600, or more, 
tons of honey produced in the Hawaiian 
Islands more than 200 tons come from the 
flowers of algaroba. The trees begin to 
bloom when they are from four to six 
years old. There are two periods of bloom¬ 
ing. The first begins in March or later, 
according to the locality of the island, and 
lasts until August. In Hawaii the second 
period ends about the first of October. The 
long period of blooming adds greatly to 
the value of the tree to beekeepers. 
The honey is water-white, about as thick 
as that of white clover, and possesses an 
agreeable altho peculiar flavor. It is suit¬ 
able for table honey. Honey which has 
granulated in the combs is placed in huge 
solar extractors which will hold several 
hundred combs at a time. The sun’s heat 
liquefies the honey without darkening it, 
and also melts most of the wax, which is 
extracted from the “slumgum” by .the 
usual methods. 
The trees grow rapidly, and attain a 
height of 45 to 50 feet, with a diameter of 
2 feet or more—much larger than they 
grow in Texas except in the Rio Grande 
