POR see es ee 
THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR-CANE BY HYBRIDISATION, 315 
HYBRIDISATION. 
Having briefly reviewed the methods of selection, and the intro- 
duction of foreign varieties, it is now proposed to deal with the question 
of the improvement of the sugar-cane by hybridisation. Although 
perhaps the contents of this paper may not appear to be in line with other 
papers read at this Conference, yet they may prove of value to our tropical 
possessions in showing what efforts are being made by cane-growers in 
the Colonies and elsewhere to compete with the beet-sugar production 
of Enropean countries. 
In Europe and America, much of the progress of agriculture during 
the last fifty years has been due to the continual improvement of the 
cultivated varieties of plants and to the production of new varieties. 
In the tropics, such work, until lately, has been almost neglected, and 
therefore a record of practically the first work in this direction should be 
interesting. Although such work has been possible for eighteen years, it 
is only within the last decade that systematic attempts have been made 
to raise seedling sugar-canes on a large scale. The remainder of this 
paper can therefore be divided into two parts, the first dealing with the 
different methods of producing hybrid canes that have been adopted by 
those working for this improvement, together with some of the results 
obtained, and the second with the individual advances made by some of 
the more important cane-growing countries. 
HISTORICAL. 
The sugar-cane belongs to the Andropogonee, a tribe of the true 
grasses (Gramine@). It has a solid stem, which often attains a height 
of nearly 20 feet, and contains the sweet juice from which the sugar is 
extracted. It is now generally conceded that all cultivated varieties of 
canes belong to one species (Saccharum officinarum, L.), but there are 
reasons for believing in the existence of at least three others. None of 
them, however, are regarded as of economic importance. 
It would appear that sugar-canes probably produced from seed were 
observed at Barbados in- 1848 and 1850, and the question respecting the 
possibility of growing seedling canes in the West Indies was raised 
at various times between 1859 and 1888. In the latter year Harrison 
and Bovell, from Barbados, communicated to Kew that they had 
sixty cane plants under cultivation and that they were almost satisfied 
that they were seedlings.’ This eventually proved to be so, and from that 
time systematic attempts to raise new varieties of seedling canes at 
Barbados, British Guiana, and elsewhere in the West Indies have been 
undertaken with highly satisfactory results. 
A similar announcement as to the possibility of raising seedling sugar- 
canes was made by Soltwedel in Jaya in 1887. 
Previous to 1887 or 1888 it was generally believed that the sugar-cane, 
in common with the banana and other tropical plants, had lost its power 
of producing fertile seed, and that all recorded observations of new canes 
up to this time were bud varieties or sports. However, since the 
establishment of the fact that the cane does produce fertile seed, 
