Volume I JANUARY, 1915 Nos. 3 and 4 



SOME DIFFICULTIES IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF 

 INDIAN SUGARCANES. 



By C. a. barber, D.Sc. 



{Imperial Department of Agriculture for India.) 



(Plates XIII— XVI and 3 Text-figures.) 



The need for improving the class of sugarcanes grown in India has 

 long been recognised, and fitful efforts in this direction have been made 

 during the last hundred years or more. These efforts have, almost 

 uniformly, resulted in failure, chiefly owing to a lack of appreciation 

 of the factors involved. The subject has, however, again forced itself 

 on the attention of Government because of the steadily increasing 

 imports into India of Java sugar. There is, in India, a much larger 

 acreage under sugarcane than in any other country and it has been 

 not unreasonably maintained that there must be something wrong if 

 it cannot supply its own demand for sugar. The produce of the fields 

 is, however, so low that it is quite insufficient to meet the demands of 

 the growing population. 



In approaching the problem anew, it has been considered advisable 



to make a closer study of the canes themselves and the conditions of 



soil and climate under which they grow than appears to have been done 



before, and certain intrinsic difficulties have been met with which may 



very easily account for former failures. Before considering these it 



will be well to indicate briefly the conditions referred to. For the sake 



of conciseness, it is convenient to divide the Indian sugarcane area into 



two parts, a northern and a southern, as indicated in the accompanying 



sketch-map. The southern portion, consisting of parts of Madras, 



Mysore and Bombay, is on the whole well suited for sugarcane growing. 



It is wholly within the tropics, the temperature is uniformly high 



throughout the year and, in many places, the soil is good. The rainfall 



is, however, of such a nature that irrigation is needed to supplement it. 



India is not blessed with the well-distributed rainfall of tropical islands 



Ann. Biol. I ^^ 



