The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-22
FIRES IN
FORESTS
How Cattle Affect
Life of the
Trees.
INSTANCE WHEN
THEY DID GOOD
John N. Horner Writes of Hama
kua Blazes and What Con.
ditions Have Existed.

Editor Advertiser-Permit me a few
words in answer to "Rancher," on
forest fires in Hamakua, in a newspa-
per of October 4, 1901. He states, IF
there had been no cattle in the forest,
the underground would have been SO
thick and consequently there would
have been so much dampness that no
fire could have started in the Hama
kua forest
I am surprised that writer who
attempts to tell to others what they
ed himself with his subject before he
| started in, which 1 am quite sure he
did not do in this case or he would
not have written what l have copied
above. Had he acquainted himself
with his subject he would have known
! that all the fires that have ragged in
Hamakua the past two months We're
started in the thick part of the forest,
and it was the dense part of the for
est where the most damage has been
done
| It was SO dense in places that the sun
never reached the soil, and no stock
has ranged through it for years, if
| ever. OF course, while the soil is wet,
| ferns and bushes green, and the forest
! trees fiourishing; then, he says, truly,
| the fires will not burn, and if kindled
can be easily extinguished. Let us look
at the true situation as it existed last
April. The soil was wet; the. forest
old chow old, no one knows, with live
and dead trees standing, and large
dead trees lying upon the ground,
soaked with water, that had run out
their generations, and the ieie vines
clustering around the standing ones in
great Masses the forest very dense;
| the ferns covering the ground and
| standing six or more feet high, with
other bushes and vines entangling the
mass. This is about the situation of
most of the burned district as it exist
ed last April, when he says fire
would not burn it,
| But on April %, 1901, there started in
a drought that is not yet October I'D
ended, and during the period only III
| inches of water fell, while a stiff dry
| ing northeast wind blew all the time.
Now, look at the forest. The ferns are
all dead and dry, lying fiat upon the
ground, the live bushes wilted, many
| of the vines dead; every dead tree,
| both standing and down, is dry clean
| through: Dead limbs, twigs and all
| fallen leaves dry as finder, and the
soil that had been accommodating humus
| for hundreds of years from the drop
I r1s,N 10 ESQ
| ton growing out of it, all as dry as a
| finder box for some distance below the
surface. Mr.. Rancher tells us that a
dense forest like the one described
above, IF there had been no cattle in
it (Which this did not have) would not
burn. But Mr. Homesteader did burn
his brush so that he could plant taro,
| and the same fire burned 200 acres of
cane and several thousand acres of
| largely dense forest. So the fire has
done what Rancher said it could not
| do.
For proof of what this fire has done,
I refer the reader to Superintendent
Boyd, Mr.. Campbell, Mr.. Godfrey and
Mr.. Haughs, who have seen these fires
and the burned districts of what was
mostly a dense forest short time
ago. This is perhaps enough to prove
F., that fire will burn a dense forest
whether it has stock or no stock in it.
Rancher says: IF there had been
no cattle in the forest no fires
could have started in Hamakua." Let
| US see. The Horners have a stock
range between the east and west fires
| that have been raVsging the forests
cane and coffee fields the past few
months. Some fifteen years ago they
fenced 200 or more acres of a young
ohia forest for pasture, in which they
have kept stock ever since, and wild
cattle ranged through it before it was
fenced. No trees have been destroyed
| by the stock; the grove is flourishing.
| The stock have so completely protected
| that young forest from fire that the
superintendent is quite sure there is
not more than fifty acres of the field
| that would burn, even if set on fire
| this dry time. The cattle tramped and
! killed the ferns, bushes and weeds, and
spread grass over the whole field, and
! that was eaten down so short that
there is nothing to burn, and the plot
| is a valuable pasture, as we'll as a
| thrifty forest. Question: If stock de-
stroy forests, why have they not de-
stroyed this?
| If any doubt this statement, come
and see. I will not only show this field,
| but thousands of acres outside, where
the forest is f1ourishing, and cattle
Astounding in it all the time, and
have good reason to believe had there
| been no stock in it, thousands more
| acres would have been burned over, as
then, it would have been dense jungle
| for the fire to rage in, when man had
better keep out of its way.
A CONTRAST.
The owner of a few thousand acres
| of the dense forest described above,
was schooled in the belief that cattle
would destroy all forests if they were
allowed to range in it, so he would
not permit any stock in it; consequent
ly it grew to be a dense jungle, and
| all went up in smoke the past few
| months. A lot of men have been kept
there all the time after the first few
days, endeavoring to stop it. but thus
| far have only prevented it from back
| ing up against the wind and spreading
sideways but it went ahead before
the wind persistently some seven or
more miles.
I venture the opinion that had stock
been permitted to use it as a feeding