Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

RG: That’s what I understand. Raising corn and hay, that was during my time at Waiki‘i, but
the honey and charcoal was pau.
KM: So Waiki‘i, they were doing corn and hay also, cause you can see again, I realize we’re
flipping back and forth between these two maps. When you come up to the Waiki‘i
Paddock area
RG: Yes.
KM: Let me see if I’m in the right place, I think so. Here you have some of the paddocks, they
have Mac Hill or Turkey Pen, Chicken, they have Pu‘u Ku‘i Kahekili. Here’s the Waiki‘i
Paddock complex and we have Small Pu‘u Päpapa, Small He‘ewai like that. They were
doing some feed production up here at Waiki‘i
RG: Is this Small He‘ewai
KM: Yes, that’s Small He‘ewai.
RG: They planted corn in here, but every year they would change, they would switch. Not
every year, but maybe they plant corn in here this year and then they’d let it rest for
maybe three or four years and use it as pasture. In the mean time, they’d jump around…
KM: Rotate
RG: Rotate inside here. The reason for rotating was that they turned the soil over and raised
corn and improved the pastures.
KM: Yes. It’s actually a wise management kind of practice where you’re rotating You’re also
watching seasonally, the rains and things like that you know
RG: That’s right.
KM: You get cattle in one year, their droppings and that, goes back into the soil.
RG: And hay, they used to raise good hay, but then weather conditions started to change.
They’d bale the hay and you’d get rain, the bale was half finished and mildew would set
in and what not, so they gave up the hay. But the corn, they kept on raising corn and they
raised good corn. And then the weather kind of changed and when you expected rain
you wouldn’t get it and you would lose your crop. So that’s the reason they gave up.
KM: In your early days, in the ‘30s here, you knew when it was going to rain then More often
than not
RG: More or less, starting in November, you get a good southerly rain and you could start
moving the cattle from here on the wet side out. You get rain from maybe November,
December, January, February, and maybe about April or so, start getting dry. And then
you’ve got to move all the cattle. In the meantime, this side would be getting a rest.
KM: So logical, and again, a best management kind of, a really good practice. You’re allowing
these resting, ho‘omaha
RG: Right.
KM: They rest the fields like that. You really kind of knew, you counted every year and then
you said, you folks started to see a change in that
Ranching the Humu‘ula, Ka‘ohe and Kohala mountain lands:
RG: Yes. I think that Parker Ranch... Not running them down, and not because I worked
there. They really had a good system of moving cattle and whatnot. You take the
Humu‘ula land, that big area up there.
KM: Yes.
RG: They’d wean the calves and all the heifers… Are you interested in this
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:23