194 



and therefore labour all round, in both culture and manufacture is 

 reduced. Disease-resisting varieties are placed next, for it is certain 

 that if we have a cane giving a high yield of sugar but liable to be 

 attacked by disease, the actual yield to the planter will certainly be 

 less than with a kind prodvicing less sugar, but not suffering from 

 disease. Canes as "crop-producers" have been placed last in view, 

 as it is evident that a heavy yield of canes, inferior as sugar-producers 

 will lay a great burden upon the planter for carriage. A heavy yield 

 by a high sugar producing cane is therefore the ultima thule of the 

 planter. 



Altogether the outlook for the sugar planter in so far as regards 

 seedling canes, appears tc be a very promising one, and especially so, 

 as it can be shown in reports from Louisiana and British Guiana that 

 canes are now in cultivation, which have, for four years in succession, 

 not only given as many tons per acre as the Bourbon, but have given 

 an increased yield of sugar contents over that variety while maintain- 

 ing a good disease resisting form of growth. There can therefore be 

 little doubt that the sooner the older varieties are replaced by the 

 best of the seedling kinds, the better for the sugar industry ; as it 

 must now be conceded that these varieties are, especially in some dis- 

 tricts and in some soils, distinctly inferior to the newer kinds. There 

 is also another point Avhich will not be lost sight of in conducting the 

 cane experiments. It has been noticed that some of the newer canes 

 mature much more rapidly than the older varieties, and one special 

 kind is under observation, Avhich has, under seven months, produced 

 canes nearly twice the length of the other varieties planted at the 

 same time, and I have to-day tested the specific gravity of the juice 

 from a cane taken from the " stool " when it gave I'OiO by balance, 

 not a high density by any means, but still, somewhat remarkable for 

 time of growth. There are at least eight or nine canes of the same 

 size and length, at each stool, grown from cuttings (tops) planted 8th 

 June, 1895, and consequently six months and twenty-two days old on 

 1st January, 1896. Such a cane I take it Avould be invaluable to the 

 planter as a "supply" cane. The probability is that the density of 

 juice will improve with age so as to render it little less in value than 

 that from standard kinds at crop time in March." 



The above is an extract from the annual report of the Depart- 

 ment for 1895, to which the report furnished at the Agricultural 

 Society's Meeting of April, 1896, will form a suitable appendix as it 

 gives the results of the March examination. 



