Dec. 2, 1920.] Agricvltural Gazette of N.S.W. 855 



" Improvement will begin with the observance of two things," said the 

 Colonial Sugar Eefining Company's officers at Broadwater mill in a con- 

 versation lately. " The first is the selection of sets from disease-free canes, 

 and the second is good drainage." These gentlemen are in constant contact 

 with the necessity for good drainage, for on the Richmond some of the 

 very best land is the poorest drained and therefore lightest in yield. There 

 are farmers with whom drainage should be the first consideration of all, but 

 with whom it still occupies a quite indifferent place. 



Filling up the Misses. 



Misses are not unknown in the springing cane-field, and growers find 

 it well to strike a few sets elsewhere than in the crop, in order that the 

 gaps may be filled up with plants of about the same age. Needless to say, 

 the conditions in such cases should as closely resemble those of the crop as 

 possible. Wliere drill planting is adopted it is a good practice to plant 

 single sets in five rows in the ordinary way, and in the sixth to plant double 

 the number of sets. In this way any plants that have failed in any of the 

 rows can be filled in from the sixth row, where the plants will be of uniform 

 growth, and will not have to be brought from a nursery where the conditions 

 may have been very different. The sixth row can be thinned out as required 

 when the misses have been filled up. 



In his work in Hawaii, Dr. Cobb regarded failures in the planting as of 

 considerable significance. He argued that they indicated either unhealth- 

 iness in the sets or unfavourable conditions in the soil, and as disease was 

 sure to be one of the latter, he advised that where sets had failed the 

 soil should again be deeply and well worked, and new soil brought in if 

 possible, and that care should be taken to remove altogether the dead or 

 dying set before the new one was planted. 



The Seed to Use. 



The selection of the sets has a most important influence upon the plant. 

 Vigour, stooling habit and freedom from disease, and, of course, adhesion 

 to varietal characters are elementary considerations; others might be men- 

 tioned, but if due regard were paid to these there is little room for doubt 

 that sugar cane would be more attractive than it is ever likely to be 

 under present conditions. Here again the experienced North Coast grower 

 gaily acclaims the soundest principles and as gaily goes forward on his 

 own happy-go-lucky lines. One-year-old cane of first ratoon crop, or at 

 the least twelve months' cane from a plant crop, is no doubt universally 

 used, and rightly so, for there lies healthy vigour and activity. Every 

 grower knows, too, that while the butt shoots provide hardier and stronger 

 plants, they also make slow-growing ones; similarly every grower knows 

 that the top shoots provide the quickest growth, but the tenderest— even 

 the weakest plants. Thus enclosed, the grower proclaims the advisability 

 of using' only the middle portion of the cane— but then cane is worth £2 

 per ton and perhaps a bonus to boot, and what thrifty grower would think 

 of sacrificing half a ton per acre of good cane for the doubtful advantage 



