Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/73

 THE KEAWE 43

sixteen hundred pounds of beef per acre on land with rainfall of twenty inches a year."

Mr. Williams reiterated these figures and saw me write them down. It should be mentioned that this man has a corps of accountants which keeps books on every field for crops, for purchases, for sales, and for every bit of labor employed, just as you would expect to find in the Standard Oil Company or in other highly organized corporations."®

When one considers that a good acre of Kentucky blue grass pasture or the rich pasture of old England will produce one hundred and fifty pounds of mutton per year, and an Illinois farm in corn and alfalfa will make about four hundred and fifty pounds of beef and pork per acre per year,"® the keawe bean tree looms up as one of the king crops of the world.

In explaining the prodigious yields Mr. Williams pointed to a particular tree (see Fig. 25), which he said would yield from two to three tons. I measured the tree. It had a reach of eighty-four feet. The tree hung full of beans (see Fig. 26). Many were dropping, and the tree was still blooming. It was then the fourth of August, but Mr. Williams assured me the tree would keep on blooming for some time and that it would drop beans for five months, from July to December.

We walked through the copses of keawe where the sand was merely held in place by protection of keawe root and keawe tops which kept the wind from getting at the sand; but before the reader jumps to the conclusion that this was a desert waste, he should consider the geologic origin of the sand. It was volcanic sand blown up from the shore of the sea and mixed with perhaps ten to fifteen per cent, of shells. There is no richer soil combination known on the face of this earth than certain volcanic sands and lavas mixed

19 This particular ranch was one of several properties operated by the same management.

20 Information from Herbert Mumford. Professor of Animal Husbandry. Urbana, Ill, (Letter. Oct. 11, 1913.)