Macadamia Nuts in Hawaii: History and Production - ctahr ...

Figure 25. Harry F. Clements, the single most important individual
in the commercialization of macadamia nuts in the state
of Hawaii. As consulting plant physiologist at both Castle
& Cooke and C. Brewer, he researched, urged, and implemented
the initial plantings at Keaau and Ka'u, and
their subsequent expansion of acreage in both areas.
expansion was Harry F. Clements (Fig. 25), who
convinced the management at Castle & Cooke that
macadamia was a good business, led the group in
a land search, and finally recommended the land
at Keaau. In this search for land, Clements,
accompanied by Moltzau and others, surveyed the
entire state for land not then in sugarcane or
pineapple. The land search included an area in
Kapoho in the Puna district of the island of
Hawaii, where the Lyman Estate owned huge
parcels of land, including abandoned sugarcane
land. However, since Kapoho was 30 miles from
Hilo and since sugarcane lands are generally very
high in soil arsenic due to past use of arsenicals in
sugarcane weed control, the search was directed
toward forested virgin land nearer Hilo. The
search finally ended when Castle & Cooke
purchased 1000 acres of forested aa 1ava land from
the W. H. Shipman Estate at Keaau, named the
plantation Keaau Orchard, and planted the first
grafted macadamia nut tree on January 3, 1949.
Later, 2000 adjoining acres were acquired. John F.
Cross served as general manager and Gordon T.
Shigeura as horticulturist on the planta tion.
Incidentally, Clements' great enthusiasm for the
macadamia nut was engendered at the 1945
meeting where Thevenin gave his talk.
Castle & Cooke copyrighted its brand, Royal
Hawaiian, at a small store in Danville, California,
20
in the mid-1950s (Fig. 26), and is credited with
popularizing the nuts.
In the early 1960s the HonomalinoAgricultural
Company, headed by Willis Jennings and W. A.
Morriss as general partners and George Scha tta uer
as operational manager, started the 3500-acre nut
plantation on aa lava land at Honomalino in
South Kona. However, due to some basic errors in
earning projection, tree spacing, and variety
selection, the venture was not profitable. The
orchard, as Mac Farms of Hawaii, Inc., formed
under ownership headed by Gary Cadwallader,
Dorn Schmidt, and Lonnie Brown, with David
Rietow as operational manager for the last three
years or so. CSR of Australia purchased the
orchard in 1981. With the current management
still in control, the outlook continues to be
positive. A smaller acreage in the original orchard
is operated as Macadamia Nuts of Hawaii, Inc., by
W. C. Morriss. Larry Beck also owns an even
smaller acreage there.
C. Brewer and Co., Ltd., began its macadamia
nut operation as a part of its land utilization
experiments in 1956. The commercial macadamia
orchard was started in 1960 in the area previously
planted to sisal, and has been expanded on both
sides of Pahala town to cover over 2000 acres.
Harry F. Clements, by then on the staff at C.
Brewer, was again the major proponent of this
venture. Richard A. Cooke (Fig. 27), project
leader, and Gordon T. Shigeura, horticulturist,
were in charge of field operations.
Figure 26. Acree's Market in Danville, California, where Castle
& Cooke's macadamia nuts were originally sold to
establish the Royal Hawaiian label.