Vol. VII. No. 159. 



THE AGIlICULTUltAL NEWS. 



163- 



SUGAR INDUSTRY. 



Seedling Canes in Jdmaica. 



The Barb^iiln.s scvdliii- ciiii's IJ. 20.S .-md B. U7. 

 and also the De'mcr.-ir.i c mc J). \)^>, .•in.' i-('[.iiji'tr(l to 

 luivc given very good resulD.s in J.-ihi.iica duiing the 

 past season, their powers uf withstanding drought lieing 

 especially noticeable. 



The Jamaica correspondeiit of tiw- LoiiisidiiK Flmiter 

 refers to these canes in a letter publi-shed in the I'ldiilrr of 

 ilay 2, and states that the owner of one estate who was growing 

 several good varieties of caiie regarded IS. 208 as the liest of 

 all on account of the power it had show-n in resisting the 

 .severe drought. Another estate owner is (pioted as having 

 e.\i>ressed the opinion that lioth B. 20S and B. 147, when 

 grown for stock food, are altogether superior to native 

 Jamaica canes. 



■ At ilona estate as the result of three separate experi- 

 ments, two of ratoons and oneof plants, B. 208grewmorelu.\uvi- 

 antly than any other cane : it also gave the best crushing results 

 and the richest juice, with an increase of 50 per cent, over the 

 ordinary estate cane yield. Its superiority as second ratoons, 

 under conditions of drought, has also been well demonstrated. 

 It gave an increase of 45 per cent, in sugar over the Jamaica 

 White Tranf|iarcnt cane. The cane D. 95 showed up well 

 inider similar conditions. E(|ually encouraging leports on 

 the behaviour of these seedlings were obtained from other 

 estates. At Llandovery, in St. .\nn, ?< acres of 1!. 208 

 Avere mentioned as having stood the drouglit well, while many 

 of the ordinary estate canes died out entirely 



In consequence of the above results many planters are 

 reported to be planting larger areas of the seedling canes in 

 question. 



of the crop. Fears are now tn l>e entertained rcg.irding the 

 harvest of next year. The drought whicli reduced ihe output 

 this year still continues, and the result is very bad upon tlie new- 

 plantings. A few rains have fallen in various parts of the 

 island, but they have been of little good to the sugar distrb-ts. 

 The plantings made before Cliristmas liave alreaily died for- 

 want of moisture in many localities, w hile plantings of this- 

 spring seem likely to have the .same fate. The outlook at lhis. 

 time is certainly far worse than it was ;o the -same time last 

 season. Had rains come at an opportune lime this year the 

 harvest would have been far better, despite last year's drought. 

 The rains did not fall, however, nor has it fallen yet, and for 

 this reason the prospect is gloomy. The resources of the Cuban 

 soil are so great, however, that wonders may yet happen if 

 favourable weather sets in at any time soon. 



Cuban Sugar Crop. 



Reports from Cuba eontiniie to speak of the slmi-t- 

 age in the 1907-8 sugar crop, although this deticieiicy 

 is not now believed to be so great as was at one time 

 anticipated. It is stated that neither the cane grow- 

 ers nor the factory owners will derive much benefit 

 from the prevailing higher prices since the former sold 

 their canes to the factory at a low contract price at the 

 beginning of the season, while the factory owners were 

 in many cases obliged to borrow money from the banks 

 at a high rate of interest. The following extract from 

 the report, dated April 20 last, of the Cuban correspon- 

 dent of the Avierican Sugar Industry and Beet 

 Sugar Gazette gives some idea of the present situation 

 in the island : — 



One million tons are now regarded as the extent of the 

 present sea.son's sugar crop, though there are many who still 

 maintain that the output will be low^r. The different 

 mills throughout the island are rapidly concluding their 

 grindings and almost without ex(;eption the returns are less 

 than calculated. The disastrous drought has continued with- 

 out interruption, and while it has facilitated grinding it has 

 reduced the available cane. The high prices at wdiicli sugar 

 is now (juoted has done much to reconcile all to the .shortness 



Capacity of Sugar Factories and Economy in 

 Production. 



The accompatiyiiig note on the relationship 

 between the capacity of sugar faetoiies and the economy 

 nf production is taken liom the Anwrican Sugar 

 Indiintrii iiiiiJ Beet Sugar Gazette (i\[ay 1908) : — 



Sini-e 1900 the tendency has been, in Porto liico as in 

 Culia and Hawaii, to increase the capacity of the plants in 

 order to secure more economical results. Exjierience has 

 shown that there is a limit to the capacity of such plant.s, at 

 least in Porto Uico, and that it would \>a^ better to have, for 

 instance, three centrals of 1,000 tons capacity each, in different 

 plai-es, than one factory of a capacity of 3,000 tons. The only 

 .saving in a very large factory is on the labour expenses, there- 

 being no expense for fuel in a well managed plant of any 

 size, and most of the other items being the same in either- 

 case per ton of cane. The .saving in labour could not reach 

 20c. per ton in the larger factory, and this would be 

 largely neutralized by the necessity of going much further 

 for the supply of cane. In fact the actual profit per 

 ton of cane in the big Porto liican Centrals lias been, 

 so far, much smaller than the protit in the well situated and 

 manageil factories which have a capacity of no more than 

 700 to 900 tons. 



Evaporation from Sugar-cane Plants. 



Some idea of the very large amount of water 

 which, over any given area, is daily taken from the soil 

 and evaporated into the air by the sugar-cane crop,, 

 may be obtained from the following note, which appear- 

 ed in the Lduixiaiui Planter of March 28 last: — 



Professor Z. Kamerling, of the West Java Sugar 

 Experiment Station, has been determining the amount of water 

 evaporated by the sugar-cane under different conditions. In 

 one instance, with well developed canes, the quantity of water 

 evaporated during twenty-four hours, when the plants were- 

 exposed to the direct rays of the sun only during the after- 

 noon, averaged from 18.'i to 292 grammes per plant. In 

 another instance, a plant of about six weeks' growth, and 

 exposed to the sun during the entire day, evaporated 350' 

 grammes in twenty-four hours. The average result with nine 

 different plants, five months (ild, showed an evaporation of 

 If litres [1 litre is equal to about If pints] of water per 

 day. It is stated that the factors most generally influencing- 

 this activity of the plant are the distribution of the roots, 

 the physical condition of the soil, soil moisture content, leaf 

 temperature and sunlight conditions. 



