304 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



stations, the assembled planters of Java, in 1893, decided 

 to establish a special journal devoted to cane matters, and 

 placed the venture under the able editorship of Dr. Kobus, 

 assisted bv a strono^ editorial committee. The success of 

 the scheme has been phenomenal. In the Archief voor de 

 Java Suikerindustrie , as it is called, a series of valuable 

 scientific papers have appeared in rapid succession. The 

 journal has become the official organ of the sugar-stations, 

 and all their publications are now first printed in its pages. 

 The Archief forms already a bulky and indispensable 

 addition to our sugar-cane library, and has met with warm 

 eulogies at the hands of the scientific men at the head of 

 the European beet industry. The specially favourable con- 

 ditions prevailing in Java, coupled with the undoubted 

 energy of the planters, have placed this Dutch island at the 

 head of cane-growing countries. 



9. In the British Colonies, as a rule, no officers are 

 specially told off for the study of the sugar-cane and its 

 diseases, and this work has fallen to the lot of Government 

 Analysts and the Directors of Botanical Gardens. The 

 latter officers are saddled with heavy administrative work, 

 and hardly any descriptive work in cane diseases has been 

 produced in their establishments. 



The Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, has to 

 a certain extent supplied this deficiency, and has invoked 

 the aid of specialists, some valuable papers by Michael,^ 

 Blandford' and Massee ^ being the result. In these cases, 

 however, the character of the work has suffered from its 

 having been carried on in England ; and many points have 

 been left to be cleared up in the Colonies. 



In the Australian Colonies there are government plant 

 pathologists ; and a careful study of cane disease has been 

 made from time to time. Among these a specially able 

 summary has been written by the pathologist of New 

 South Wales.* 



In the absence of leisure for special study, the great 

 mass of the work done in the remaining British Colonies 



iMichael(i). ^ Blandford (i). 3Massee(i). ^Cobbri). 



