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Gai'dens until the present year (1896), when we succeeded in obtaining 

 a single plant from seed obtained from Forres Park. We have, how- 

 ever, a set of young plants growing in our nurseries, which were 

 received when about 5 inches high from J. R, Bovell, Esq., of Dodds, 

 Barbados. These show clearly the variable character of canes raised 

 from seed, as no two are alike. Messrs. Jenman and Harrison have 

 shown that it does not always follow that seed from a first-class 

 parent will produce a first-class seedling cane — and per contra, that 

 first-class canes have been raised from seed taken from kinds con- 

 sidered by planters as inferior. This pronounced character of variation 

 is a most hopeful one for the raisers, as it is evident that it gives a 

 wider range of choice for the selection of kinds suitable for cultivation. 

 The effort of the raisers of the sugar beet have long been directed to 

 secure a strain of plants that would, while giving a large yield per 

 acre, afford at the same time the maximum amount of sugar, and 

 their efforts have been attended with great success, for it is well known 

 that the yield from roots cultivated of recent years show a tremendous 

 advance over the percentage yielded by the beet twenty years ago. 

 Had the yield of the Cane increased in the same proportion as that of 

 Beet, the sugar industry would not have suffered as it has done of 

 late ; and why cannot the yield of the cane be increaed ? Mr. Neville 

 Lubbock is reported to have pointed to the bamboo as an example of 

 the size a sugar cane should be, and though Ave may not get it to 

 reach this, it is apparent from recent experience that great advances 

 can be made. 



It is recorded in a recent work on " Plant Breeding " that a 

 seedsman conceived the idea that a new form of bean pod Avould com- 

 mend itself to his customers, and wrote to a noted bean raiser to 

 '' maTce it for him/' and it is reported that he obtained from the 

 •experienced raiser exactly what he required. This may seem to 

 the uninitiated far-fetched ; but nevertheless it is really what is 

 being done with the plants of the vegetable, the flower, and the frnif 

 garden ; and why it should not be done for the cane-field, is hard to 

 say. The ideal has been reached with many plants, why not in the canes ? 



A beginning has been made and a fair amount of success has 

 been obtained ; inasmuch as we have now canes that have given 25 

 per cent, above the yield of varieties commonly grown ; and if Ave 

 can once get those varieties into the field on a large scale, Ave shall be 

 able to proA'e conclusively the value of Avork done, and Ave hope to 

 see this accomplished before the return of man^^ seasons, and before 

 " the steed is wholly starved." 



