AuprsT r, 1882.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



m 



INDIA ;— CROP AND WEATHER REPORT. 



For the Week ending 11th Joly 1882. 

 General Remarks.— The rainfall of the week hag 

 been general throughout the country (excepting the 

 Madras Presidency, from which no reports have been 

 received). In Coorg the rainfall has been excessive ; 

 in the Mysore State extremely heavy in parts and 

 sutiicient everywhere ; iu the Bombay Presidency hi-avy 

 in some places, good in others, and light in a few 

 talukas of three districts; in the Nizam's territories 

 fair ; in Berar good ; in the Central Provinces good 

 everywhere, and heavy in two districts ; in the Central 

 India States good on the whole ; in the Rujpntana 

 good in some districts, fair in others, .and none in 

 Peshawar; in the North-Westeru Provinces and Oudh 

 heavy iu Rohilkund, good or fair in other districts 

 and light iu the eustern tracts ; in Bengal good nearly 

 everywhere, though light in one or two places ; in 

 Assam good in all districts, though in one more is 

 wanted ; in British Burmah good generally, but in some 

 localities apparently still short. 



General prospects are satisfactory on the whole. 

 In Coorg the ragi crops are being weeded and paddy, 

 where not flooded, is doing well ; in the Mysore State 

 standing crops are in good condition and sowings are 

 in progress ; in Ber.ar and the Nizam's territories the 

 sowing of kharif crops is either progressing or com- 

 pleted ; in the Bombay Presidency sowings have mostly 

 been completed and in some places transplantation 

 has commenced ; in the Central Provinces the kharif 

 sowings have been completed in parts and continue 

 in others, and the transplanting of rice is progressing 

 in the eastern districts ; in the Central India and 

 Rajputana States ploughing and sowing are progressing; 

 in the Punjab kh.arif sowings continue in some dis- 

 tricts, and have commenced in others ; in the North- 

 Westeru Provinces and Oudh the kharif crops have 

 come up well in places and sowings are still in pro- 

 gress in others ; iu Bengal the sowing of the autumn 

 crops is still going on iu Bohar, elsewhere the trans- 

 planting of winter rice on low lands is proceeding, 

 and sugarcane, early rice, and jute are doing well ; 

 in Assam and British Burmah ploughing and sowing 

 are still in active progress. 



Bengal.— Rain fell in all districts during the week ; 

 prospects generally favourable, but more rain is wanted 

 in some places for cultivation of wintpr rice, especially 

 on high lands ; trausplantiug of winter rice on low 

 lauds proceeding; sugar-cane, early rice, and jute 

 promising ; iu Behar sowing of autumn crops stdl going 

 on ; cholera has almost disappeared from many places, 

 but is still prevalent iu Birbhoom, Chittagong, and 

 Southal Pergunnahs ; fever is said to be increasing in 

 parts of Nuddea, but is abating in Darjeeling Terai. 



Assam (Cachar).— Weather very warm and sultry ; 

 sowing of duraahi and murali crops finislied ; ploughing 

 for sali crops continues; common rice 21 5-16th seers 

 per rupee ; tea doing well ; no more cholera cases 

 reported. 



Mysore and Coorg.— Rain has fallen generally 

 throughout the Mysore State ; heavy iloods in the 

 Cauvery, Heu.avaji, and Zegachi rivers ; theTongabadra 

 in the Shimoga district has overllowed its banks iu 

 many places; standing crops everywhere in good con- 

 dition; agricultural oper.itions in .active progress ; ragi, 

 KaHik pa°.dy, balar. &c., being sown ; prospects favour- 

 aVile ; pvices— ragi 25i si-ers per rupee iu Baugalore, 20 

 seers in Mysore, 23' to 36 in Shimoga, 32 to 44 in 

 Chitaldrug ; public health good.— Pioneer. 



♦ 



NEW VARIETY OF SUGAR-CANE. 



A communication, interesting in itself, and specially 

 to inasmuch as it must have been one of the last mat- 

 ters to engage the attention of mu- great natiu-alist, 

 Daraiu, was read before tlie Linnean Society at its 



last meeting. The subject was the production of a new 

 Tariety of Sugar-cane by a process of apposition, and 

 which opened up the whole question of Graft Hybrid- 

 isation. The paper was forwarded to Mr. Dai-win by a 

 Brazilian planter, with a record of oonfirmatoiy experi- 

 meuts by Dr. GlasI, Dii-ector of the Botanic Garden of 

 Rio Janeiro, and communicated to the Linnean Society. 

 According to the statements made in the paper, duly 

 and formally attested by a number of planters, a new 

 variety had been produced by taking two cuttings of 

 different varieties of Sugar-cane, dividing the cuttings 

 in halves lengthwise, and then tying the cut smface of 

 one-half of the one to the coiTesponding smiace of the 

 other. Then by means which we need not detail, but 

 but which seem to be similar to the greffe a double 

 bouture of the French, and which is emploj-ed for pro- 

 pagating Aucubas, union is effected, and a new bud or 

 shoot produced, possessing, not characters intermediate 

 between the two varieties, but characters sufficient to 

 lead the authors to speak of it as an entirely distinct 

 variety — a cii-cumstance which leads us to think the 

 experimenters are attempting to prove too much. 



In addition to the sworn testimony photographs were 

 sent, but from the slight inspection we have been en- 

 abled to make of them, we should not deem the evid- 

 ence they aflord as sufficiently conclusive. Of coiu'se 

 there is no reason whatever to doubt the perfect good 

 faith of the writers ; but in a case of such importance 

 it is only right to require that the evidence they lay 

 before us -should be made as rigorous as possible, so 

 that misiuterjn-etation of facts should be as far as 

 possible excluded. Gardeners in general who, or then- 

 ancestors, have practised the art of gi-^fting from time 

 immemorial, are almost without exception imanimous in 

 their verdict against the possibility of gi-aft hybridisation ; 

 but, on the other hand, they must and do admit the 

 existence of some moditicatious, else the utility of graft- 

 ing at all would, to a large extent, be negative. The 

 truth seems to be that physiological differences are pro- 

 duced — the stock acts in this way on the scion, and to 

 a ■ less degi-ee the scion on the stock. It is needless 

 to give illustrative instances, as they are familiar to 

 eveiy gardener, and we have so often adverted to the 

 . matter in these columns, and given so many illustrative 

 cases, that it is needless now to repeat them. 



It must be aibnitted that, as a rule, the changes pro- 

 duced are chiefly physiological, actual changes of fomi 

 BO marked as to be obvious to the unaided vision being 

 relatively few. StiU they do exist, and if the propor- 

 tions they bear to the enormous number of cases in 

 which no such visible effect is j^roduced is apparently 

 infinitesimal, yet the presumption is that as marked 

 physiological change can hardly exist without change 

 of structure, so it is ouly the imperfection of our vision 

 and the coarse methods of our observation which pre- 

 vent us from seeing it. If this be admitted, and we 

 think it must be, the possibility of gi-aft hybridisation 

 must be admitted also. Then such cases as that of the 

 Cytisus Adami, of the Potato, of the Vine (several cases), 

 of the Pear, and of many others which have been re- 

 corded in these pages from time to time are, taken as 

 a whole, inexplicable upon any other hyjjothesis. The 

 numerous cases where a variegated scion has communic- 

 ated its properties to a green-leaved stock, of which we 

 have also seen numerous cases, ore sufficient to prove 

 the reality of the reciprocal influence, though it is per- 

 haps not fail' to adduce a constitutional defect as a case 

 of gi-aft hybiidisation properly so called. 



We believe, then, that gi'aft hybridisation is quite 

 possible — nay, that it does occiu' ; but mider all the cu-- 

 cumstauces of the case we are justified iii demanding 

 the most rigorous evidence possible before we can aihnit 

 that any individual case wliich may present itself is 

 really attributable to hybridisation of this character, 

 tirafting of any kind in the case of monocotyledons 

 is indeed of doubtful possibility. It is true we have 



