CHAPTER V
A STOCK-FOOD TREE, THE KEAWE, OR HAWAIIAN ALGAROBA
I shall begin my discussion of the stock-food trees with the Hawaiian algaroba, commonly called keawe in those islands. I start with keawe because the facts about it have been worked out by American agricultural officials; because the evidence that these men have produced is official; and because of the astonishing, convincing, and yet almost unbelievable nature of that evidence. I shall present much of the material in the exact words of officials of the American Agricultural Experiment Station in Honolulu.
E. V. Wilcox, Special Agent in charge, Agricultural Experiment Station, Honolulu, said:[1]
"The algaroba, or keawe (prosopis juliflora)[2] is commonly recognized as the most valuable tree which has thus far been introduced into the Territory of Hawaii.
"There are eighteen or more species of prosopis, the natural
- ↑ Press Bulletin, No. 26, Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, The Algaroba in Hawaii.
- ↑ The botanists have long had a hot dispute as to whether this Hawaiian tree was American or Chilean in its origin. Certainly it was introduced about a century ago, and there are at least three good rumors as to its source.
"I have become very much interested in the identity of this species and have succeeded in obtaining related species from many parts of the world and have these growing in seedling form on our station here in Honolulu. I feel pretty sure that ours is a South American species, possibly prosopis chiliensis. I am quite certain that it is neither the true mesquite nor the true carob."
(A letter signed J. M. Westgate, Agronomist in charge, Agricultural Experiment Station, Honolulu, Hawaii, July 5, 1916.)
See Figs. 27 and 38 for pictures of beans of keawe and carob. It is one of the jokes on horticulture that they have been called the same—even in Bailey's good Encyclopaedia of Horticulture.
