The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-08-22
PLANT TREES.
the undertal

One of the Wisest measures, looking to the
welfare of Honolulu and its immediate n~eighbor-
hood, that was passed by the Legislature, is the
Act to amend Section l of an Act entitled an
Act to authorize the Minister of the Interior to
take possession of whatever land and water may
be required for the use of the Honolulu Water
Works. The amended Act extends the control
OF the Minister of the Interior TO the ridge of
mountains lying between the district Of Honolulu
and the district of Raneohe, and anywhere be-
tween the ridges that bound Nuuanu Valley; and
the object, as we understand it, is to put a stop TO
the destruction of the woods by cattle. This is a
subject to which we have earnestly directed the
attention of the authorities in years past, and
now that the requisite legislation has been had,
we hope ere long to see active measures taken to.
wards banishing the cattle and rehabilitating the
almost bare hill-sides Of the valley. We know of
10 person in the country better qualified or who
would more heartily enter into the work of tree
planting, than Mr.. III. Holstein. Pertinent to
the subject, We append several extracts from a
lecture delivered by Mr.. Holstein in this city last
year. ~
an undisputed and well known fact, and verified in
Honolulu even. if people only win remember the
times of twenty years ago, when scarcely o tree was
to be seen in and near the city. Trees not only pre-
serve by their shade the moisture that has been alb
sorbed by the soil, but they cool the surrounding at
m~osphere. Humboldt asserts that q tree whose crown
measures thirty feet in diameter influences the at
mosphere to a distance of 300 yards. Trees also add
greatly tC the moisture Of the atmosphere by their
wonderful force pump power, by which they are en-
abled to send the moisture absorbed by their tiny
roots into the smallest branch and twig that may be
from 20 to 200 feet above the ground, and as by this
process more water is pumped up than required, it
is again evaporated by the leaves and falls in drops
of rain to the ground, which is the cause that we
sometimes meet with q shower of rain in q forest,
while beyond it is dry and clear. Humboldt in his
sojourn in Venezuela resided at O village, where on
account of the destruction of forests upon a neigh
boring mountain q lake had dried up and the coun-
try became so sterile that the people had been COM
PEELED to ~emigrate; but after having restored the
forests by replanting and leaving to nature its undis-
turbed action, the lake gradually filed up again, the
soil became productive and the people returned to
their abandoned homes.
Mountains all over the world contain the reser-
voirs of water. Be they Alp or Andes, Rocky or
Ural mountains, Aleghanies or Adirondacks, all are
the cradles of the thousands of streams and rivers
that run towards the sea and bring back the waters
that were evaporated. and those hoary sires of con-
tinents look down with pride upon the countries
spread out beneath their base, that owe their beauty,
fruitfulness and prosperous peoples to those springs
that like mothers milk flowed from their bosoms.
have heard the more than puerile remark, that
there are nc reservoirs Of water in our island noun
tains, when the many streams of the past and the
streams of to-day, the springs that empty above
ground and below the surf beaten shore, contradict
such ideas, unworthy of farther notice.
"In Denmark and North Germany forests are
continually planted by the government to preserve
the equilibrium between supply and demand, and to
this foresight and wisdom is due the freedom from
drought and ~cheapness of frewood. judge that l
have raised in this country not short of q million Of
trees, but the Khedive of Egypt has done better and
planted twenty million of trees in the desert in much
less time, and where rain was never known before, u
inches fell last year. When every preparation is
perfected for planting, the work can be done with
much speed. L have myself planted with a few
hands over three thousand trees in a single day al
Ulupalakua. Forest planting should be divided in
three classes Of trees, to wit: such as tell most to
cool the atmosphere, such as will serve the purpose
of underground, shading the ground and in time
realise as frewood, and lastly such as produce valu.
able wood for ship building and all other purposes
when strong wood is desirable. The common kukui
tree is the most useful for cooling the atmosphere,
while besides mulberry, ETC., and wood as used as
growth and fre-wood, and various species of Euca-
lyptus are valuable either for their bark as Tannin,
or Quinine, or as ship timbers, some kinds being i'm
pregnable by the Toredo.'' -