STUDIES IN INDIAN SUGARCANES, No. 3 





thp: classification of Indian canes, with specl\l 



reference to the saretha and 



sunnabile groups. 



BY 



C. A. BARBER, Sc.D. (Cantab.), 

 Government Sugarcane Expert, Madras. 



[Received for publicatiou on the 25th Jimo. 1917.] 



I. INTRODUCTION. 



One of the first pieces of work undertaken on founding the Cane-breeding 

 Station at Coimbatore was to make as large a collection as possible of the cane 

 varieties growing in different parts of India. This was done, primarity, w4th 

 the object of obtaining material for the study of these canes when grown 

 together, at the same time and under similar conditions. It was also desired to 

 gain some idea as to the kinds of cane grown in different tracts, so as the more 

 readily to obtain improved varieties suited to them. It was, lastly, hoped 

 that seedlings might be obtained from these canes, of which some might prove 

 useful in replacing their parents. It was known that many of them did not 

 flower in North India and that, in those that did, the anthers were closed and 

 the pollen inside was ill-formed and immature. It was hoped that the change 

 to South Indian conditions might induce some of them to flower, and that the 

 sexual organs might recover tone so as to become better formed and thus more 

 fertile, 



A very sharp distinction soo)\ obtruded itself bet^^e^-■n two classes of cane 

 varieties thus collected. There was a large series of thick, juicy canes, gener- 

 ally excellent in appearance. These were commonly grown on a crop scale 

 inthe more tropical parts of India but. in the northern parts, they were usually 

 grown in small plots under higli cultivation, near large towns, in which they 

 were used for eating as a fruit. In contrast with this first class there was 

 another, of thin, hardy canes, grown under field conditions all over India, but 



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NEW YOkC 

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