STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 181 



extreme of this experience was in tlie case of a variety grown in 

 the immediate vicinity of Valparaiso, in 32° south lat. This 

 failed the first year to form any tubers, and so w^as entirely lost. 

 In only one case out of twelve varieties, imported from South 

 America, was the variety found adapted to our climate. 



h. If cuttings of the sugar cane, of sufficient early maturity, 

 and vigor to bear seed, could be introduced into our sugar grow- 

 ing States, they would not only themselves become immediately 

 available; but would probably at once afford new seedling varie- 

 ties, or rather, judging from the analogy of Indian corn, and 

 broom corn, would afford a single variety like the parent, except 

 that it might exhibit a shortened season of maturity. This new 

 seedling variety, it may be supposed, like Indian corn and its 

 other associate congeners, would become immediately available 

 for plantation purposes, unlike tulips and peonies which attain 

 maturity only in from five to seven years, and unlike potatoes 

 which, though capable of forming nearly full size tubers the first 

 year, do not acquire a fitness for the table short of three or 

 four years. 



i. In judging of the valuable qualities of tropical plants of 

 the same species, though of different varieties, a distinction should 

 be made between the quality of early maturity and hardiness, the 

 two things by no means always implying each other. The pres- 

 sent experience of the sugar growing States, shows that, of the 

 existing varieties of cane, the Bourbon and Red Ribbon varieties 

 are much more hardy than the Green Ribbon^ Creole and Otahcite 

 varieties; but whether there is a difference in their maturity does 

 not appear from published notices. 



The analogy of other tropical plants may be useful to those 

 who lalwr for the reproduction of the sugarcane from the seed. 

 Thus, 



1. Beans. — The Lima bean requires more heat than any other 

 we cultivate. It needs a higher temperature for its healthful 

 germination, and a longer season for its maturity. The JSIo/unck 

 bean, on tlie contrary, grows with less heat, and at an earlier 

 period in the spring, than any other variety. Indeed, it will 

 recover from a light injury by frost. Again, the Lima bean, 

 thoujrh an annual here, is a perennial in the hapj^y climate of 

 Liberia. So, also, the Scarlet Rummer is perennial, even here, 



