Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1909-12-02

into railroad ties which last for forty
years. At one mill that we visited
they were filing a contract for 200, 900
ties to be delivered to the Santa Fe
railroad at a dollar a tie. The san
dalwood forests have been depleted,
but a great many young trees are
springing up, and with them and other
valuable trees, the islands are now
being systematically reforested.
l was struck with the hardihood Of
the palms that thrive so beautifully
in the ~lowlands, and with the ferns,
of which there are one hundred and
fifty varieties. They grow very lux
uriantly and, apparently, right out Of
the lava. Some varieties grow SO
large that their trunks are used for
making fences and corduroy roads in
the marshes. On our trip to the vol
cano. described later. we passed
through nine miles of ferns. The erup-
ton of the volcano in 1910 covered
the whole mountain side to the sea
with lava, yet today the whole over
flowed district is covered with vege-
tation, chiefly ferns. Nature takes
care Of her own. These ferns and
the lantana plant like the acacia take
deep, wide root, and, in growing, break
up the lava rock and hasten its dis
indignation into soil.
One of the professors of the Plant.
ers' Experimental Station, which is
maintained by the planters at a cost
Of $4,000 a year, sought to reclaim
n mountain side of lava and planted
a lot of lantana. 1t grew so thickly
that a cat could not penetrate it and
no pillow could be used. Having over
done the job, the professor then Sc
cured an insect blight that is fond
Of the lantana and turned it loose on
the mountain. When l saw the Ian
tana patch the leaves had turned
white and the roots were dying. Upon
inquiry of the guide as to what would
prevent the parasite from attacking and
destroying other vegetation when the
lantana should be consumed, he told
me that it would eat nothing but Ian
tana, and in verification Of that state
ment pointed to some volunteer vari-
cites of other plants that were grow
ing green among the lantana bushes.
"But," he said, rather than take
any chances with the appetite of the
insect, we will, as soon as the Ian
tana is all killed, touch a match to
the mountain side and burn up Ian
tana, blight and all" A poor brand
Of justice to the insect, I thought, but
they need more land and fewer pests
IN Hawaii. The coffee trees of the
island, with their precious red cram
berry-like pods, which l saw being
gathered and dried, were being at
tackled and destroyed by a parasite.
But the planters found a way. They
made hoods or sacks of cheese cloth
and covered over the coffee plant.
They then put in the sack an import
ed lady bug and tied the sack around
the trunk Of the tree SO the bug could
not get out, and in a day or two every
parasite was destroyed and the sack
removed. So it will be seer that they
are up to date in Hawaii and, while
nature helps them, they also help
themselves. Another example Of how
old Mother Nature takes care of her
own is shown in the kohala tree which
grows in the lava and with it's spear
like leaves furnishes material for the
native hat. AS it cannot take deep
root in the lava and yet grows tall,
nature, to prevent it's topping over
with the first high wind, has provided
1t with roots which extend from the
middle of it's trunk in all directions
to the ground, after the fashion of the
braces which the farmer puts on his
fence posts in rocky ground. The ma
jestic banyan tree goes eve further
in this direction. 1t starts with one
trunk, but when its long, heavy limbs
begin to grow horizontally, shoots
start downward from the limbs, grow
into the ground, take root and eventu-
ally LOILu OInCl uunho, LACoC uCCo
are thus enabled to attain prodigious
size and to cover much ground. AT
the beautiful home of Mr.. Francis M.
Hatch, who was Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Provisional Government
and later of the Republic Of Hawaii,
there grows one which has a dozen
trunks and shades more than an acre
Of ground. After a dinner at which
Mr.. Hatch entertained some of us, we
had the pleasure Of being RECALLED with
coffee under this tree. Aside from
the interest lent to the tree by the his
torical events that took place there
under, which grew out of the several
bloodless revolutions OF the islands,
1t had a r%everential charm for me be-
cause it was the banyan tree under
which Robert Louis Stevenson wrote
some of his MASTERPIECES before far-off
Samoa claimed his frail body as her
own.
Among the more numerous plants of
the islands that grow wild, are the
breadfruit, %cocoanut, banana, yam,
taro, ii, sugar cane, pineapple, noun
tain apple, vanilla bean, mulberry,
gaava, orange, lime, mango, haIa, hau,
mlo, and kamani. These yielded
food to the native and furnished ma
terial for cloth, rope, mats and other