June 2, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



§0^ 



BEET VEEiiUS CANE HVGAR. 



What with improved processes and government boun- 

 ties, there seems danger of beet sugar driving the produce 

 of the cane out ot" the market. AVe quote as follows: — 

 Some interesting calculations in this week's Journal des 

 Fahricants de Sucre, show that the present average cost 

 of all Kaw Sugars produced in Germany and exported, 

 after allowing for the profit on the drawback, is 16s. per 

 cwt. The same calculations show that the most advanced 

 German factories produce Sugar at far less, and that they 

 can make it at lis. 3d, and 12s. 3d. per cwt. None of 

 these figures appear to include the cost of transit to the 

 coast and shipment, but adding Is. for these items, the 

 lowest cost of German Sugar free on board at present is 12s. 

 3d. or 13s. 3d. per cwt. This still leaves a very handsome 

 profit on the present free-on-board quotations if the Sugar 

 were being sold by the best manufacturers only, and not 

 by intermediate speculators, who bought at far higher 

 currencies. The factories which can manufacture at thesa 

 rates are apx^arently few in number, if the average cost 

 for all Germany be IGs. at the factory, or 17s. at the 

 shipping port. At the same time it is the advanced fact- 

 ories which would export, while the backward ones would 

 sell Sugar for home use, so that there is certainly no 

 reason to suppose that the present free-on-board prices 

 woidd not in another season, if the yieUl were as high as it 

 has been in this one, be sufficiently remunerative, the bounty 

 being considered. With the large number of fresh factories 

 which will be at work during the next season in Germany, 

 and which will doubtless be erected on the most advanced 

 systems, there appears a prospect of quite as low, if not of 

 even lower, j)rices next winter. Added to this, France is ap- 

 parently about to give her Beet producers a considerable boun 

 ty, while France, and it is said Holland, are also taking 

 steps to impose surtaxes on foreign Sugars, which wU have 

 the effect of driving increased supplies of German Beet to 

 England. Under these circumstances the long-threatened 

 crisis has come upon the producers of old-fashioned Cane Su- 

 gar in our A\'est Indian and other colonies. Taking the first 

 cost of that Sugar at lOs. at the plantation, and the cost 

 of transport to the coast, shipping, freight, landing charges, 

 and sehing commissions here at 5s. to (3s., it appears hkely 

 that the prices cm-rent for Cane refining Sugars in some 

 cases show an absolute loss to the producer. If the fall 

 goes further, the consequences to the producers of old- 

 fashioned Sugar are too serious to be contemplated, even 

 by those who have for years past been pointing out over 

 and over again the approach of the crisis now upon us. 

 If AVest Indian proprietors had read the signs of the 

 times, and had erected proper machinery, the present 

 prices, though mipleasautly lower than before would still 

 have been sufliciently remimerative. Even yet there is 

 probably time to escape, if arrangements are made to adopt 

 modern processes by the next season. But what hope is 

 there of those who adhere to methods which sacrifice two- 

 thirds of the 18 per cent of Sugar in the Cane, while 

 their rivals extract the whole of the 12 per cent in the Beet, 

 and actually get double as much fine Sugar out of the 

 latter, as the West Indian Planter produces in common 

 Sugar out of the Cane? — Produce MarkeW lieview. 



THE FERTILISATION OF THE FIG. 



The following, on the Fertihsation of the Fig, is from 

 Dr. Hermann Midler's " Fertilisation of Flowers," recently 

 pubhshed in an English translation by Messrs. Macmiilan 

 & Co.: — 



" ficus carica, L. — The latest researches confirm the fact, 

 which Linmeus (41()A) was aware of, that the so-called Capri- 

 ficus, which bears inedible fruit, and the Fig-tree cultiv- 

 ated for the sake of its fruit from tmie immemorial, 

 stand in the relation of male and female to one another. 

 Fertilisation is effected by a wasp, Blastophaga grossorum. 

 Gray. (Oynips psines, L., Chalcid;t). The hollow inflor- 

 esctmce which we call a Fig is very markedly proterogynous* 

 in both the Fig-tree and the Caprificus. The greater part 

 of its inner wall is covered with female flowers, which are 



* Proterogynous plants are those in which the pistil (or 

 organ which develops the seeds) comes to maturity' before 

 the stamens (organs which develop the pollen necessary 

 for fertihsation). 



mature when the " eye " (ostiolum) of the young Fig opens 

 Male flowers hne a limited zone near the orifice, and are- 

 mature until the Fig is ripe. The Caprificus produces three 

 crops of Figs annually, one crop beginning to flower as 

 the previous one is ripe. Many varieties of the Fig-tree 

 ripen two crops, some three, annually. In most cases each 

 crop of Figs, whether of the Fig-tree or the Caprificus, 

 brings only flowers of one sex to full matm-ity. 



At Naples, the Caprificus ripens its three crops of in- 

 edible Figs in April, June, and August. The first croj) 

 are called Mamme, the second Profichi, and the third 

 Mammoni. Each of these hatches a new generation of 

 Fig wasps, but it is only the second which produces the 

 pollen with which the Fig tree is cross-fertiUsed. Each 

 crop produces female flowers in which the wasps undergo 

 their development, but male flowers are usually quite 

 wanting in the Mamme, few in number in the Mammoni, 

 and only plentiful in the Profichi. The Fig-tree also pro- 

 duces three crops in the season, called Fiori di Fico, 

 Pedagnuoli, and Oimaruoli. 



The reproduction of the Fig wasp takes place in the 

 following way: — The female wasps force their way with 

 the loss of their wings into young Figs of the Caprifi.cus, 

 through the narrow ostiolum. They lay their eggs in the 

 ovaries of the female flowers, between the nucleus and the 

 integuments, placing one egg only in each. The wasp dies 

 within the Fig to which it has entrusted its otfspring. In 

 consequence of the puncture which the wasp has made, 

 the female flower enlarges after the manner of a gall, and 

 in its ovary instead of its own embryo, the wasp embryo 

 develops. AVhile the Figs themselves are proterogynous, 

 the wasps on the other hand are proterandrous.* The 

 wingless males are the first to emberge ; they gnaw their 

 way into the ovaries in which the females lie, and im- 

 pregnate them, and afterwards perish within the same Fig 

 in which they were born. The winged females then es- 

 cape by widening the jiassage made by the males. They 

 leave the ripe Fig by way of the ostiolum, and enter a 

 young Fig either of the same Caprificus, or of a neigh- 

 bouring Fig-tree, to lay their eggs in its female flowers. 

 The wasps which enter the young Caprificus Figs (either 

 passing from Mamme to Profichi, or from Profichi to 

 Mammoni, or from Mammoni to Mamme) produce a new 

 progeny; those, on the other hand, which enter young Figs 

 upon a Fig-tree (passing from Mamme to Fiori di Fico, or 

 from Profichi to Pedagnuoli, or from IMamraoni toCimaruoU) 

 leave no oft'spring, since in the cultivated Figs the female 

 flowers are so constituted that the wasps are not able to 

 lay their eggs in the right spot. 



Of the tlu'ee generations of wasps, only those which have 

 developed within Profichi act as fertilising agents. In the 

 Profichi, at the time when the wasps escape from the 

 ovaries, the zone of male flowers near the ostiolum is 

 covered with pollen, so the wasps leave these Figs ladeu 

 with pollen. They carry this pollen partly to the stigmas 

 of young Mammoni of Caprificus, which, however, rarely 

 set a seed capable of germinating, and partly to the 

 Pedagnuoli of the Fig-tree, which, after this cross- fertilis- 

 ation, bears good seed plentifully. 



While the fruit of the Cajjrificus, whose only use is to 

 supply pollen, remains hard and withers on the tree, or 

 falls off without becoming sweet, the fruit of the Fig-tree, 

 when the seeds ripen, becomes sweet and juicy, and so 

 attracts birds, which disseminate the seeds. 



From the most ancient times, as long as the Fig-tree 

 has been cultivated, its artificial fertilisation by means of 

 the Caprificus, or so-called caprification, has been practised. 

 This process consists in hanging ripe fruit of the L'aprificus 

 (Profichi) to the branches of the Fig-trees, whose Figs, 

 (Pedagnuoli) are then in their female stage, with open 

 ostiola. The wasps issuing from the former enter the latter, 

 bringing the pollen of the Profichi with them. 



Sycomorus antiquorhuhi, Jliy. — The Egyptian sycamore 

 has for its fertilising agent a small wasp (Sycophaga 

 sycoraori, Hasselquist), which is closely related to the Fig 

 wasp, and has a similar mode of life. The females do 

 not leave the ripe fruit through the ostiolum. but through 

 several holes which they make near it. Both females and 

 males are wingless,- and the males are distinguished by 



* Proterandrous plants are those in which the stamens 

 come to matmity before the pistil. 



