[Found under: “KE ANO O KE KALAIAINA.”]

On  making loʻi if it was not done previously. I learned to make wet patches for four years at Lahainaluna. If it was desirable to convert a piece of dry land into a wet patch, they looked to see how water could be brought to it, because water was important. . . . If the patch was 20 fathoms long and 10 fathoms [anana, arm span] wide, we made them with shovels and the few pickaxes that we had. The soil near the banks was tossed up on them. The banks were made well, they were solid and thick. In digging with the shovel from the upper to the lower end and from one side to the other there was no part of the patch that was not dug. It looked level and even. Then the water was run into it and then the uneven places were seen, some deep, some high. The deep places were filled in. When it was seen that it was level then water was allowed to run in. We brought the oxen, that pulled the carts over the plains, and put them into the newly made patch and the oxen trampled on the earth up and down, to-and-fro. If we wanted some fun like the oxen, we increased the water in which to play. . . .

This was done every day until the soil was no longer loose. . . . The patch was left to dry until needed for planting, then enough water was run in for the making of mounds [puʻepuʻe] for planting.

The mounds were evenly spaced, not too close, about 3 feet apart. Mounding in wet patches was the same as in dry patches. The mounds were in even rows, not one out of place. . . . So it was on dry lands, the holes were dug in even rows, none were uneven except when a stone obstructed the way.

Planting in wet patches was the same as for dry patches, each mound had two or three stalks. At the time of planting, the water reached below the places where the stalks were planted. The water did not reach the part of the stalk that was cut off from the corm [kohina]. Great care was taken at the time of planting to have the proper amount of water, so as not to go over the mounds.

When the stalks had put forth two or three leaves, the work needed for the wet patches was the same as for the dry patches. Great care was taken to remove any weed that appeared. If one did not watch out, the taros would not grow.

[This translation of part of a treatise by Z. P. K. Kalokuokamaile running under the title “Ke Ano o ke Kalaiaina” which runs from 11/25/1921 to 9/28/1922 in the Kuokoa, is taken from page 99 of Native Planters in Old Hawaii: Their Life, Lore, and Environment, by Handy and Handy with the collaboration of Mary Kawena Pukui. I saw an announcement that it will be out as an ebook this week, from Bishop Museum Press! Click here to be taken to their announcement I saw.]

(Kuokoa, 6/22/1922, p. 4)

Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Buke LXI, Helu 25, Aoao 4. Iune 22, 1922.