38S 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



December 2, 1916. 



SUGAR. 



THE STUDY OF THE SUGAR-CANE IN 



INDIA. 



There has recently been issued by the Imperial Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in India an account by Dr. C. A. Barber, 

 Government Sugar-cane Expert, Madras, of his studies on 

 Indian sugar-canes at the Cane-breeding Station at Coim- 

 batore. This deals with observations on the methods of 

 raising, and characteristics of sugar-cane seedlings, and 

 discusses some correlations existing between morphological 

 characters and sucrose in the juice. While in the West 

 Indies this publication in respect of its details will interest 

 principally experiment station workers with sugar-cane, there 

 are nevertheless many matters which will prove interesting 

 to the general reader. 



The first piece of successful work accomplished at this 

 newly founded cane-breeding station in India was the pro- 

 duction in that country of seedling canes. This appears 

 to have been repeatedly attempted, and the reason for 

 previous lack of success seems to be that almost all the 

 efforts were made in North India. Flowering of the 

 sugar-cane is rare there, and, when it occurs, there is 

 generally sterility in the male organs. The flowering of the 

 sugar-cane decreases steadily in India as we proceed north 

 and west, until it disappears entirely. 



Flowering at Coimbatore occurs from October to 

 December. A study of the best method to induce flowering 

 has resulted in the discovery that it depends chiefly on the 

 time of planting. The best planting time for obtaining 

 arrows is generally about November. As this is not the 

 best time for general cane planting on the station, 'arrowing 

 plots' have been instituted, planted in November, and these 

 have been attended with marked success. As in the West 

 Indies, certain years appear to be better for arrowing than 

 others. 



For protection against foreign pollen, the arrows are 

 covered by fine muslin bags outside bamboo or iron cages, 

 such as is done in Java work. Cageing must be done before 

 emergence of the inflorescence from its sheath, as some 

 flowers have been seen to open their anthers before pro- 

 trusion. It .seems as if there is some ground for assuming 

 prepotency of the pollen in cane flowers, although this has 

 not been definitely settled. 



The sources from which cane arrows have been obtalm d 

 are various. An increasing number of canes have lately been 

 induced to flower on the station itself, and the farm is thus 

 becoming independent. The pollen is now being .sent from 

 a distance by post, by the use of small gelatine capsules, and 

 appears to retain its vitality longer than expected. Sugar-cane 

 seed has also been tested and has proved to keep good for 

 a number of months. 



The collected arrows are chopped up and spread over an 

 intimate mixture of finely powdered horse manure and river 

 Band placed in shallow pans. After watering and keeping 

 the pans in the full .sun the seedlings begin to appear on the 

 fourth day, but in some instances have been known to 

 germinate only after a full month. At six months they are 



planted in pits for study. At first these pits were large, 

 and there was some suspicion that the generous nature of 

 the environment reduced the sugar content of the plants, 

 .so the pits have now been made smaller. 



It is interesting to record that the land on the farm is 

 slightly saline in character, and green dressings, especially 

 Doiichos Idblah, have been found a useful treatment for 

 improving the soil 



In India it takes eighteen months for the seedlings to 

 mature, and it takes three years before a seedling is ultimately 

 distributed for planting purposes. But it is generally wiser 

 to refrain from sending out cuttings until tests have been 

 made for two or three years longer. 



The vitality of the seedlings of difierent parentage have 

 been found to vary a good deal. In some cases such as '.Java', 

 the fertility of the arrows appears to be very great, but the 

 seedlings are so delicate that they die in thousands when 

 very young. The seedlings obtained by crossing cultivated 

 canes with wild grasses are characteiized by excessive vigour. 



An enumeration of the various seedlings obtained eaeh 

 year is given in the paper. There Las been a good deal of 

 variation in the parentage each year, owing to the particular 

 canes flowering. The idea constantly aimed at is to obtain 

 crosses between the various North Indian canes and thicker, 

 better, tropical ones, with the object of producing varieties 

 capable of being grown in North India under ryots' conditions. 

 Success so for has not beengieat on account of the dependence 

 on simultaneous flowering of the desired parent. The current 

 flowering season (191-")), however, promises very well, as 

 a large number of indigenous canes and introduced tropical 

 ones are flowering together on the farm, ilost of the former 

 have infertile stamens, which is considered a further augury 

 of ultimate success. 



The sucrose content of the seedlings raised at the Indian 

 sugar-cane breeding farm has steadily increased during the 

 past three years. During the current harvesting season, 

 the sucrose in many seedlings has been very high, ^nd about 

 2.50, which have produced over 18 per cent, of sucrose in 

 the juice, have been selected for growing on. It is of interest 

 to record the fact that the highest figure was in a seedling 

 raised from B.20S, which recorded 23"4 per cent, sucrose 

 in the juice. 



The variations in the morphological characters of the 

 seedlings have been carefully noted, with the object of correl- 

 ating them with richness of juice. General habit appears to 

 be of the greatest use in classification of seedlings, as it has 

 proved to be with varieties of cultivated cane. In connexion 

 with correlations dealing with seedlings of common parentage, 

 it is importiint that such correlations .should be detected eariy 

 in the life of the seedlings, so as to avoid rearing useless 

 plants; but there are special difficulties in the way, and the 

 principle has been adopted of trying first to find such correl- 

 ations in mature canes at crop time, and later, to attempt to 

 correlate infant and mature characters. The first step alone 

 has been tried at present, and the following correlations have 

 been studied between mature characters and sucrose in the 

 juice, the results being given in the summary table appended 

 in the paper: correlation between the amount of sucrose in the 

 juice and various leaf and cane mea.surements (width, length 

 and module, or length divided by width) and colour of 

 cane, and correlations between leaf width and thickness of 

 cane, tillering power and totiil weight of seedling. In the 

 studies of the colour of cane, the interesting fact has come to 

 light that, in coloured and striped canes used as parents, 

 approximately half of the seedlings are green. This appears 

 to be true of the coloured parents in 191214, although there 

 may be a larger proportion where the parent itself is green. 



