r
very unfavorably,
dry land area,
of course,
with the 2.32 square miles of
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.
thirty miles
Food was brought
to the
to supplement
southeast,
in from Jaluit Atoll,
Chickens and
the imported foodstuffs.
fruit trees were planted and used,
copra plantation,
A
but the
about
swine were raised
small number
island was
of bread-
primarily a
Kili passed into tne hands of the United
States Government following World War II, and the few remaining
plantation workers
|
Kili,
were evacuated,
|
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 occupies the center
of the itsland to the extent of 4.25 acres.
There are a number
of bearing breadfrutit trees, some edible pandanus,
banana,
3
as well as
papaya and pumpkin plantings.
A serious breadfriut blignt Has destroyed many of the trees
On Kili and remains unenecked.
<A method of controlling
this menace has
ae
not yet
9004bOI
been found,