THE DISEASES OF THE SUGAR-CANE. 479 



years, those of Barbados were quickly known all over the 

 world in sugar-growing countries and excited the keenest 

 interest in the subject. In Barbados, Harrison and Bovell, 

 and later, in Demerara, Jenman and Harrison have con- 

 tinued the study of cane seedlings, and to their valuable 

 reports we owe most of our present knowledge on the 

 subject.^ 



The results are, on the whole, satisfactory. As the 

 sugar-cane requires two years for its growth from seed to 

 flowering, seminal selection here is slow work ; and those 

 who failed to grasp the subject, and looked for a sudden 

 revolution in the cane-fields, were from the first doomed to 

 disappointment. From the nature of the case, experiments 

 must be conducted on a large scale — a difficult matter with 

 so extremely tender a seedling which grows into so large a 

 plant. Any one reading the Demerara reports will be at 

 once convinced of the proportions of the task set themselves 

 by Harrison and Jenman ; and the comparative failure of 

 all but a few attempts elsewhere adds to our sense of the 

 difficulty of the work.'^ 



Two main features have constantly to be held in view 

 in these experiments. The variety aimed at must have a 

 sugar yield equal to the best of the old sorts, and it must 

 have a greater power of resisting disease. 



The following plant, raised by Prinsen Geerligs in Java, 

 may serve as an example of a hybrid sugar-cane. Of the 

 parents, the Black Java cane has infertile pollen and there- 

 fore no seedlings of its own ; it is much planted because of 

 its rich juice, but it cannot withstand sereh. The Canne 

 niorte of Australia is vigorous and resists sereh, has a great 

 quantity of sugar and yields heavy crops, but its juice is of 

 inferior sucrose content. The hybrid obtained shows very 

 vigorous growth, with good yield of juice of good quality.^ 



Careful experiments, conducted in this way, are sure 

 ultimately to succeed in producing valuable additions to the 

 varieties of sugar-cane in cultivation, and also to assist in 

 checking the dangerous parasitic diseases to which the 

 better-class canes are liable. 



^ Reports. - Reports. ^ Geerligs. 



