1922.] SUGAR CANE EXPERIMENTS 1919-21. 193 



From the preceding table it will be seen that a fair number of varieties 

 which had not grown into large stools as seedlings, have developed into 

 good stools as ratoons and that their juice was of very fair qualitj'. In 

 making this selection a higher standard, both as regards the weight of 

 canes from the stool and the quality of the juice, is adopted than that for 

 the first year's selection of seedlings. It will be observed that seedlings 

 raised from H. ? and L, 511 have again given the bulk of the selected 

 varieties. 



Results of Tests of Varieties. 



The canes under report were grown at the Experiment Station, 

 St. Augustine, as plant canes, first and second ratoons. Plant canes 

 receive an application of pen manure at the rate of 15 tons per acre ; no 

 manures were applied to ratoons. The canes received ordinary estate 

 cultivation. Mechanical tillage i.e. passing the small plough and 

 cultivator between the cane stools, is performed in the early stages of 

 growth. After the canes have grown too tall to be worked by implements 

 manual labour is substituted. 



During the period under review great care has been taken to eradicate 

 the Mosaic disease. Each field was systematically examined at least 

 once a month, all cane stools which showed signs of the disease were dug 

 out and removed from the field. This to a large extent explains the 

 comparatively small yield obtained this year from the majority of the 

 fields, but the disease has been greatly reduced at the Experiment 

 Station. The number of diseased stools dug out and the percentage 

 affected for plant canes and ratoons is given under Table XVI. 

 Froghoppers were again comparatively few and the cultivation suffered 

 very little from root disease. 



The results obtained from plant canes are recorded in Tables IV to 

 VII, those from the first ratoons in Tables VIII to XI ; Tables XII and 

 XIII give the results for the second ratoons, and Tables XIV and XV 

 the average results for plant canes and ratoons. 



Information with regard to the date of planting and testing of the 

 juice is given at the head of the Tables. 



Ij\rPLE MENTAL AND HAND TILLAGE. 



COMPARATIVE RESULTS WITH CERTAIN VARIETIES OF PLANT CANES. 



The canes in Field 14, (see Table IV), were planted during the latter 

 part of September and beginning of October 1919, tested on March 31 and 

 April 1, 1921 and reaped during April 1921, when eighteen to nineteen 

 months old. Eight varieties were grown in duj^licate plots of 

 apjiroximately one quarter of an acre each. In one plot the land was 

 prepared and subsequently cultivated bj^ manual labour, in the other 

 the land was prepared and cultivated by animal drawn implements until 

 the canes were too big. The plot of Ba.6032, worked with implements, was 

 approximately three-quarters of an acre and those of B. 156 and B. 6308 

 slightly more than one and a quarter acre each. Duplicate samples of canes 

 were taken from each plot, the juice from each tested separately and the 

 average of the two results recorded. The field and analytical results are 

 given below. 



