them, particularly the hilo grass (Paspalum conjugatum), which forms a dense mat over the ground, prevent the spread of forests. The pili grass (Heteropogon contortus) is also noxious, for its awns get badly entangled in the wool of sheep. The native manienie (Stenotaphrum americanum) and kukai (Panicum pruriens), however, are relished by stock and are found on all the inhabited islands; the Bermuda grass (Cynodon dactylon), a June grass (Poa annua), and Guinea grass (Panicum jumentorum) have also been successfully introduced. The Paspalum orbiculare is the large swamp grass with which the natives covered their houses. On the island of Niihau is a fine grass (Cyperus laevigatus), out of which the beautiful Niihau mats were formerly made; it is used in making Panama hats. Mats were also made of the leaves of the hala tree (Pandanus odoratissimus). The wauke plant (Broussonetia papyrifera), and to a less extent the mamake (Pipturus albidus) and Boehmeria stipularis, furnished the bark out of which the famous kapa cloth was made, while the olopa (Cheirodendron gaudichaudii) and the koolea (Myrsine lessertiana) furnished the dyes with which it was coloured. From several species of Cibotium is obtained a glossy yellowish wool, used for making pillows and mattresses. Ferns, of which there are about 130 species varying from a few inches to 30 ft. in height, form a luxuriant undergrowth in the ohia-lehua and the koa forests, and the islands are noted for the profusion and beautiful colours of their flowering plants. Kalo (Colocasia antiquorum, var., esculenta), which furnishes the principal food of the natives, and sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum), the cultivation of which has become the chief industry of the islands, were introduced before the discovery of the group by Captain Cook in 1778. Sisal hemp has been introduced, and there is a large plantation of it W. of Honolulu.
Over seventy varieties of seaweeds, growing in the fresh-water pools and in the waters near the coast, are used by the natives as food. These limus, as they are called by the Kanakas, are washed, salted, broken and eaten as a relish or as a flavouring for fish or other meat. The culture of such algae may prove of economic importance; gelatine, glue and agar-agar would be valuable by-products.
Fauna.—A day-flying bat, whales and dolphins are about the only indigenous mammals; hogs, dogs and rats had been introduced before Cook’s discovery. Fish in an interesting variety of colours and shapes abound in the sea and in artificial ponds along the coasts.[1] There are some fine species of birds, and the native avifauna is so distinctive that Wallace argued from it that the Hawaiian Archipelago had long been separated from any other land. There were native names for 89 varieties. The most typical family is the Drepanidae, so named for the stout sickle-shaped beak with which the birds extract insects from heavy-barked trees; Gadow considers the family American in its origin, and thinks that the Moho,[2] a family of honey-suckers, were later comers and from Australia. The mamo (Drepanis pacifica) has large golden feathers on its back; it is now very rare, and is seldom found except on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, about 4000 ft. above the sea. The smaller yellow feathers, once used for the war cloaks of the native chiefs, were furnished by the oo (Moho nobilis) and the aa (Moho braccatus), now found only occasionally in the valleys of Kauai near Hanalei, on the N. side of the island; scarlet feathers for similar mantles were taken from the iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea), a black-bodied, scarlet-winged song-bird, which feeds on nectar and on insects found in the bark of the koa and ohia trees, and from the Fringilla coccinea. In the old times birds were protected by the native belief that divine messages were conveyed by bird cries, and by royal edict forbidding the killing of species furnishing the material for feather cloaks, contributions towards which were long almost the only taxes paid. Thus the downfall of the monarchy and of the ancient cults have been nearly fatal to some of the more beautiful birds; feather ornaments, formerly worn only by nobles, came to be a common decoration; and many species (for example the Hawaiian gallinule, Gallinula sandwicensis, which, because of its crimson frontal plate and bill, was said by the natives to have played the part of Prometheus, burning its head with fire stolen from the gods and bestowed on mortals) have been nearly destroyed by the mongoose, or have been driven from their lowland homes to the mountains, such being the fate of the mamo, mentioned above, and of the Sandwich Island goose (Bernicla sandwicensis), which is here a remarkable example of adaptation, as its present habitat is quite arid. This goose has been introduced successfully into Europe. A bird called moho, but actually of a different family, was the Pennula ecaudata or millsi, which had hardly any tail, and had wings so degenerate that it was commonly thought wingless. The turnstone (Strepsilas interpres) arrives in the islands in August after breeding in Alaska. There are no parrots. The only reptiles are three species of skinks and four of the gecko; the islands are famed for their freedom from snakes. Land-snails, mostly Achatinellidae, are remarkably frequent and diverse; over 300 varieties exist. Insects are numerous, and of about 500 species of beetle some 80% are not known to exist elsewhere; cockroaches and green locusts are pests, as are, also, mosquitoes,[3] wasps, scorpions, centipedes and white ants, which have all been introduced from elsewhere.
Soil.—The soil of the Territory is almost wholly a decomposition of lava, and in general differs much from the soils of the United States, particularly in the large amount of nitrogen (often more than 1.25% in cane and coffee soil, and occasionally 2.2%) and iron, and in the high degree of acidity. High up on the windward side of a mountain it is thin, light red or yellow, and of inferior quality. Low down on the leeward side it is dark red and fertile, but still too pervious to retain moisture well. In the older valleys on the islands of Kauai, Oahu and Maui, as well as on the lowland plain of Molokai, the soil is deeper and usually, too, the moisture is retained by a heavy clay. In some places along the coast there is a narrow strip of decomposed coral limestone; often, too, a coral reef has served to catch the sediment washed down the mountain side until a deep sedimentary soil has been deposited. On the still lower levels the soil is deepest and most productive.
Agriculture.—The tenure by which lands were held before 1838 was strictly feudal, resembling that of Germany in the 11th century, and lands were sometimes enfeoffed to the seventh degree. But in the “Great Division” which took place in 1848 and forms the foundation of present land titles, about 984,000 acres, nearly one-fourth of the inhabited area, were set apart for the crown, about 1,495,000 acres for the government, and about 1,619,000 acres for the several chiefs; and the common people received fee-simple titles[4] for their house lots and the pieces of land which they cultivated for themselves, about 28,600 acres, almost entirely in isolated patches of irregular shape hemmed in by the holdings of the crown, the government or the great chiefs. Generally the chiefs ran into debt; many died without heirs; and their lands passed largely into the hands of foreigners. At the abolition of the monarchy in 1893, the crown domains were declared to be public lands, and, with the other government lands, were by the terms of annexation turned over to the United States in 1898. They had been offered for sale or lease in accordance with land acts (of 1884 and 1895—the latter corresponding generally to the land laws of New Zealand) designed to promote division into small farms and their immediate improvement. In 1909 the area of the public land was about 1,700,000 acres. In 1900 there were in the Territory 2273 farms, of which 1209 contained less than 10 acres, 785 contained between 10 and 100 acres, and 116 contained 1000 acres or more. The natives seldom cultivate more than half an acre apiece, and the Portuguese settlers usually only 25 or 30 acres at most. Of the total area of the Territory only 86,854 acres, or 2.77%, were under cultivation in 1900, and of this 65,687 acres, or 75.6%, were divided into 170 farms and planted to sugar-cane. In 1909 it was estimated that 213,000 acres (about half of which was irrigated) were planted to sugar, one half being cropped each year. The average yield per acre of cane-sugar is the greatest in the world, 30 to 40 tons of cane being an average per acre, and as much as 1014 tons of sugar having been produced from a single acre under irrigation. The cultivation of the cane was greatly encouraged by the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, which established practically free trade between the islands and the United States, and since 1879 it has been widely extended by means of irrigation, the water being obtained both by pumping from numerous artesian wells and by conducting surface water through canals and ditches. The sugar farms are mostly on the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai, at the bases of mountains; those on the leeward side have the better soil, but require much more irrigating. The product increased from 26,072,429 ℔ in 1876 to 259,789,462 ℔ in 1890, 542,098,500 ℔ in 1899 and about 1,060,000,000 ℔ (valued at more than $40,000,000) in 1909. Nearly all of it is exported to the United States. Rice was the second product in importance until competition with Japan, Louisiana and Texas made the crop a poor investment; improved culture and machinery may restore rice culture to its former importance. It is grown almost wholly by Japanese and Chinese on small low farms along the coasts, mostly on the islands of Kauai and Oahu. In 1899 the product amounted to 33,442,400 ℔; in 1907 about 12,000 acres were planted, and the crop was estimated to be worth $2,500,000. Coffee of good quality is grown at elevations ranging between 1000 to 3000 ft. above the sea; the Hawaiian product is called Kona coffee—from Kona, a district of the S. side of Hawaii island, where much of it is grown. In 1909 about 4500 acres were in coffee, the value of the crop was $350,000; and 1,763,119 ℔ of coffee, valued at $211,535, were exported from Hawaii to the mainland of the United States. A few bananas and (especially from Oahu) pineapples of fine quality are exported; since 1901 the canning of
- ↑ Partly described by T. S. Streets, Contributions to the Natural History of the Hawaiian and Fanning Islands, Bulletin 7 of U.S. National Museum (Washington, 1877). Several new species are described in U.S. Bureau of Fisheries Document, No. 623 (Washington, 1907).
- ↑ So Lesson called the family from the native name in 1831; Cabanis (1847) suggested Acrulocercus.
- ↑ The entomological department of the Hawaii Experiment Station undertakes “mosquito control,” and in 1905–1906 imported top-minnows (Poeciliidae) to destroy mosquito larvae.
- ↑ These and other title-holders received corresponding rights to the use of irrigation ditches, and to fish in certain sea areas adjacent to their holdings.
