Vol. 1. No. 8. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



115 



and hard canes' appear in any cpiantity, and a 'large 

 jiiuuunt of rotten canes are to be seen everywhere,' no 

 excuse can be made when the remedies are at hand and 

 when, with a little care, the hvss could be reduced to a 

 miniinum. I would suggest that a short note on the 

 .subject may aj)pear in the Afirlcidtuntl Xr'C.v jxiinting 

 out tlirtt it we are to laaintain a successful sugar 

 industry m this island we nuist take more care of 

 the canes an<l prevent the enormous loss referred to as 

 having recently taken place in the Parish of St. John's. 



How New Pests are Introduced. 



In a recent circular issued by the Hawaiian Sugar 

 Planters' Association an interesting e.xamjjle is given 

 <>f the manner in which new pests may be introiluced 

 into an island. At present the Hawaiian Islands are 

 .sinaularlv Irci' from manv of the moiv destructive 

 insect and other pe.sts which bring about so much 

 damage in other parts of the world where the sugar- 

 cane is cultivated. In particular, the various destructive 

 'moth-borers' of the West Indies and Java do not at 

 present occur in the Sandwich Islands. In order to 

 prevent the introduction of new jiests into these islands, 

 the Director of the Sugar Experiment Station, 

 Dr. C.F. Eckhart, has drawn attention to the advisability 

 of obtaining all new varieties of cane for trial from 

 other parts of the world through the Expeiiment 

 Station only. In this way all shipments can be 

 examined by a competent expert and dangerous samples 

 destroyed imme(liately. That this precaution is neces- 

 sary is evident, he states, from the condition in which 

 a sample of seedling canes from Demerara .irrixed 

 at the Hawaiian Station. The canes were sent in 

 •A ventilated sugar barrel and arrived at Honolulu in 

 eighty-five days. On examination it was found that 

 the cuttings were almost completely destroyed bv 

 borers, but fortunately, all these had in turn been 

 destroyed by ants anfl parasitic fungi with the exce])- 

 tion of one beetle wliich arrived alive. The barrel anrl 

 its contents were innnediately bui-ned. This example 

 is sufficient to show the great danger of introducing 

 plants or cuttings from other parts of the world unless 

 flue precautions are taken to prevent the introduction 

 of harmful pests at the same time. The safest way 

 would unflouljtedly be to limit plant introduction as 

 far as po.ssible to Experiment Stations and Botanic 

 Gardens will I'e all due care coidd be t,-iken. 



Porto Rico. 



PROSPECTS OF SUGAR CROP 



1902. 



It i.s judged that the fine sugar crop of last year, 

 1900-1, 80,000 toii.s, said to he the largest ever exported 

 from tlie island, will be exceeded thi.s .sea.son, 1901-2, liv 

 .some 15,000 tojis. 



Its sliijiment under free trade is a matter of great i-ain 

 to tlie jilanters, as it enaliles many of the smaller [ilanters to 

 undertake improvements before iniiiossihle, while tlie fair 

 praspect for the future has induced the creation of \arious 



new sugar enterjiriscs and land investments for further 

 jilanting. This would seem, however, as far as individual 

 Jilanters are concerned, a u.seless operation : for there is but 

 little doubt that in a short time the entire .sugar industry 

 will lie absorlied openly (as it is virtually now, though 

 una\owedly) in the great mainland trust. The trust, in the 

 lieginning of the autumn, voted an increase uf caiiital stock 

 for the accjtuiemerit of laud in Cuba and Porto Rico, and the 

 political conditions of the former not being at present at all 

 favourable for such ventures, it is possible that the entire 

 sum (.-?i:i,000,000 United States) maybe utilized in Poi'to 

 Rie.i. Several im|iortant sugar works were taken in hand 

 during the year, the principal being a !f 1,000,000 Central at 

 Guanica, owned by a new conifianj' controlled from New 

 York. It will have a grinding capacity of 1,600 tons of 

 cane per day. Its crvstallizers and filters come from 

 Germany and all the other machinery from the United 

 States. (Diiilomatic and Consular l!e[iort, No. 2,826. TraJe 

 of Porto liiro for 1901). 



Forked Sugar-Canes. 



Occasionally sugar-canes showing a marked depar- 

 ture from the normal form and habit are met with. 

 The occurrence of bud variation in sugar-cane was 

 described (with coloured plates) in the West Indicia 

 liiiU<-fi K, Vol. II., pp. •21()-22:l More recently specimens 

 of forked canes have been kindly communicated to 

 this Department. In these the usual single stem is 

 ili\ided into two stems both of equal size and appear- 

 ance. They are identical, also, in colour and markings. 

 A sketch is given below of a forked cane (White 

 Transparent) presentecl to the Department bv Mr. W. 

 H. Smith of Drax Hall, Barbado.s. 



It will be observed that 

 this forking of the stem is quite 

 distinct from the branching due 

 to the development of side buds. 

 The latter is a common occur- 

 rence when the top of a cane 

 is injured, or there is an abnor- 

 mal growth of buds in 'stand 

 o\'er' canes. This is well illus- 

 trated in the plate facing p. 219 

 of the Biilli'fin above referred 

 to. Forked canes, on the other 

 hand, are apparently the result 

 of a division of the growing 

 tissue at the ajjex of the stem. 

 Examples have been described 

 in Java by Benecke in a seedling 

 cane, and by Kriiger in the 

 C'hcribon variety. An excellent 

 Fi'j. 11. FoRKEii SuoAK- photograph of two forked canes, 

 Can'k- that occurred recently at 



Brighton and West Farm estates at St. Kitts, has 

 been forwarded by Mr. W. Lunt, the Curator of the 

 Botanic Station in that island. The.se are verj- similar 

 to the specimen found at Barbados figured above. In 

 both instances at St. Kitts, the forked specimens 

 happened to be cane B. 147. As Mr. Lunt remarks 

 they are 'interesting as freaks of nature but they have 

 no economic importance.' 



