Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

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Yes.
I told Walter, be careful when you get in the plow land you may drown in there, you won’t
be able to get out on your four-wheel drive vehicle..
Uh-hmm [chuckling].
He said, “What do you mean” He came up to Waiki‘i, the soil is so deep and like ashes,
light, light.
Oh yes, light powder.
Just like powder, you know.
Yes.
And he went inside there, he had his Bronco. You know the 4-wheel Broncos
Yes.
[chuckles] He sat in there, couldn’t get out.
Oh, gosh!
It was the land that was tilled over and over by the farmers.
Yes, yes.
Naturally, it was real powdery and soft, he tells me, “Can you believe I got stuck in that
dry-land, the soil up Waiki‘i” [chuckles].
And you told him, “Yes,” right [chuckling]
I told him, “You watch out, be careful.” However to make fences, we had an easy time to
make fence up here.
Oh, I bet.
It was soft to dig fence post holes.
Yes. Were your posts pretty much mämane or ‘öhi‘a
Mämane. And the latter part of course, we had much easier time to get kiawe posts.
Yes, yes. Did you go down from here, you’d mentioned that you folks did keep pipi on the
makai side of the road also towards Pu‘u Hïna‘i like that
Pu‘u Hïna‘i, oh yes. Pu‘u Hïna‘i was one of those areas Alfred W. Carter wanted to
improve. So he spent some money there to broadcast some seeds and establish tree
plots. We plowed one area and we planted the various types of grasses.
Oh… [opens gate on Pu‘u Ku‘ikahekili] …So, that purple vetch is that small leaf legume,
growing out here like that
Yes.
It’s okay as a feed too
Yes, it is. Most of these legumes are good. Purple vetch, unusual, the purple vetch can
grow with hardly any soil preparation you know, they just germinate all over. It mixes well
with the grass.
There were a wide range of feeds that you were able to use out on these lands here,
yes
Oh, yes. You see some of the cowboys will tell you, strong grass you know. Strong grass
means good grass, that gives all the weight on the animal, faster weight on the animal.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:492