A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. X. No. 238. 



BARBADOS, JUNE 10, 1911. 



Pricb Id. 



CONTENTS. 



Atji'iciiltuiv ill 'I'l inidad. 



1!M)9-10 



Avocado Pear 



Camphor, Artificial and 



Natural 



Coaia Rulibcr frcnu 



Uganda 



Cotton (Joods in (iroat 



liritain, rrodncti(]n <if 

 Cotton Note.s : — 



Cotton-Growing in Brazil 

 The World's Cotton 



Slocks 



West Indian Cotton ... 



Department News 



Expeiimcnts on the Stor- 

 age of ( )nions 



Fungus Notes : — 



Miscellaneous Fungi 



Foinul Recently 



Gleanings 



Influence of Radioactive 



Substances on I'lants 

 Insect Notes : — 



Peripatus 



Page. 



JSl 

 180 



187 



1S7 



191 



182 



182 

 182 

 ITVt 



101 



100 



188 



183 

 186 



Jlachiiies for Extracting 



Citrus Essential Oils 184 



Mangoes for the West 



Indies, New 180 



Market Reports 192 



Notes and Comments ... 184 



Oxidation in Soils 183 



Rice Cultivation in Ceylon 185 

 Ruldior and Balata in Brit- 

 ish Guiana 185 



St. Lucia and the Corona- 

 tion Kxinbition 185 



Selection of Soluble Plant 



Fo(.d by Roots 184 



Students' Corner 189 



Sugar-Cane, Peiiod of 



Maturity of 177 



Sugar Industry : — 



the Intiuencj of IMolas- 



ses on Soil Fertility 179 

 Weed Destruction in the 



I'hilippines 189 



Wind, Resistance of Plants 



to 185 



under theii- itiHiience: but it may well be a character of 

 sufficient constancy to have an important bearing on 

 several points of interest, both practical and theoretical, 

 in connexion with the sugar-cane. 



Page. 



The Period of Maturity of the 

 Sugar-Can e. 



|T has been reciignii:e<l fairly generally for 

 line time that all sugar-canes do not rn)eir 



I within the sanio number of weeks aft-'- plant- 

 ing, and that some come to maturity slowly, while 

 others do so very rapidly: in other words, that the rate of 

 ripening varies considerably in different varieties of 

 canes, and would appear to be approximately constant 

 for any given variety. The actual rate in each case 

 must, of course, be dependent on external conditions 

 to some extent, and will change slightly from yeartoyear. 



Some interesting work on the subject, by C. S. 

 Taylor, B.A., Agricultural Chemist to the Government 

 of Bengal, has recently appeared in No. 3 of the Depart- 

 mental Records of that Presidency, entitled Notes on 

 Classification and E.xamination of the Canes at Present 

 Indigenous to Bengal. In this, the author describes 

 experiments conducted to determine the period of 

 rip'-ning of several indigenous varieties of cane, as 

 judged by three factors: comparative rates of change of 

 sucrose in juice, comparative rates of change of reducing 

 sugar content, and comparative juice extraction. He 

 claims to have found that some varieties can be grouped 

 as early rijieners, others as ripening at a medium period 

 and others again as late ripeners. This factor in itself 

 is imjjortant from a practical point of view,but its signifi- 

 cance is considerably enhanced by a second, namely, 

 the actual time taken by the cane to attain its maxi- 

 mum maturity, once it has commenced to ripen. The 

 bearing of this fact is easily recognized, ns is pointed 

 out by Taylor, if such a point as the increase of sucose 

 in the juice due to ripening is considered. In a slow 

 ripening cane this increase will be slow, so that there 

 will be but little dift'erence in the percentage of sucrose 

 in the juice, whether the cane is cut at an early date or 

 not until two months later. On the other hand, in the 

 case of a cane that attains maturity rapidly and some- 

 what later, the difference will be very considerable, as 

 much of the increase will take place in a very short space 

 of time, at the end of the total life period. Lastly, in 

 the case of rapid and early ripening cane, the value 

 would be high when the cane was cut at an early date_ 

 but would have fdlen off, owing to over- ripeness, two 

 months later. 



