—mewerey
61 I
é.
very unfavorably, of course, with the 2.32 square miles of
dry land area, the 229.40 square miles of lagoon area, and the
large reef areas of Bikini Atoll.
Kili was purchased by German traders from the local chiefs
and was operated as a commercial copra plantation by the
Germans.
The title to the island was transferred to the
Japanese Government when the Japanese seized the Marshalls in
1914.
It was leased to a Japanese company and operated as a
copra plantation until 1940.
There were allegedly not more
than about thirty Marshallese laborers working on the plantation at a time.
Food was brought in from Jaluit Atoll, about
thirty miies to the southeast.
Chickens and swine were raised
to supplement the imported foodstuffs.
A small number of bread-
fruit trees were planted and used, but the island was primarily a
copra plantation.
Kili passed into the hands of the United
States Government following World War II, and the few remaining
plantation workers were evacuated.
Kili,
lying as it does in the southern Marshall,
heavy rainfall and has rich and deep soil,
enjoys a
for the Marshalls.
Most of the island, 198.04 acres have been planted to coconut
palms (191.17 acres).
A taro patch area occuples the center
of the island to the extent of 4.25 acres.
There are a number
of bearing breadfruit trees, some edible pandanus, as well as
banana,
papaya and pumpkin plantings.
3 A serious breadfriut blight has destroyed many of. the trees
On Kili and remains unchecked.
A method of controlling
this menace has not yet been found,