THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR-CANE BY HYBRIDISATION. 3827 
Four years of careful hybridisation resulted in but two seedlings, 
but during the last year (1905-6), owing to a favourable season, over 
600 seedlings have been obtained by Atkins! at the Harvard Experi- 
ment Station, and nearly all these are the result of hand cross-pollination. 
Emasculation was effected during early morning when the anthers were 
full-grown but unexpanded, and pollination was continued for several 
days, the spikelets being kept under gauze cloth. It is moreover shown 
in his report that great care must be taken with the germination of 
the seeds, much depending upon the soil used, on the depth to which 
they are set, and on the watering. 
This report is, without doubt, a valuable one, as it shows conclusively 
that, with a favourable season, seedlings of the sugar-cane can be obtained 
in large quantities as the result of cross-pollination. 
BRITISH WEST INDIES AND BRITISH GUIANA. 
Since the establishment of the fact in 1887 and 1888 by Soltwedel 
in Java and Harrison and Bovell in Barbados that the sugar-cane at 
times does bear fertile seeds, systematic attempts have been continued in 
the West Indies and British Guiana towards the raising of improved 
races of seedling canes. All the different methods of selection before 
referred to have been adopted, with the result that thousands of seedlings 
have been raised, from which a few good ones have been chosen and 
recommended to planters for trial. It was thought, however, that it was 
essential to select both parents, and the various methods to ensure the 
crossing of the chosen varieties were given an extended trial. The method 
of planting in alternate rows of varieties that had practically unisexual 
flowers, which has given such good results in Jaya, has been experimented 
with, but, owing to the success of Lewton-Brain in 1904 in Barbados in 
obtaining seedlings by hand cross-pollination, it is now held that artificial 
hybridisation of the sugar-cane is practicable and ensures the best results 
in the shortest possible time. 
Having briefly referred to the methods adopted for the raising of 
seedling canes in the West Indies, some of the results already obtained 
may be reviewed in order to show what improvement has been made. 
The “ Bourbon” cane was at one time the standard cane of the West 
Indies, but, owing to fungoid diseases, its cultivation had to be given up, 
and other varieties substituted in its place. In Barbados the cultivation 
of the Bourbon cane has been entirely abandoned, and another variety, 
the White Transparent, has taken its place as the standard cane. 
Barbados.—Thousands of seedlings are raised yearly in Barbados 
from the planting of the arrows from the better varieties, and these are 
submitted to rigorous selection on the tonnage of canes per acre and the 
chemical analysis of the juice. During the last five years in Barbados 
over 20,000 seedling canes have been raised and planted out, but less 
than 1 per cent. of these have stood the stringent tests of field and 
chemical selection applied to them. In the season 1904-5 over 7,000 
plants were raised from seed, and out of these only 95 were considered 
worthy of further propagation. It may be urged that a large number of 
seedlings are in this way wasted every year, but it is held by Bovell that, 
