PART II. TILLERING. 



(1) In seedlings. 



The tillering or branching of the cane differs considerably according to 

 the variety, and, as the ultimate crop of canes produced is obviously influenced 

 by this character, it is of some importance. Scattered through the literature 

 of the sugarcane, there are to be found many countings of shoots at various 

 stages of growth, as well as the numbers of canes reaped at harvest, and among 

 the records on estates a far greater number probably exist. From these obser- 

 vations the tillering powers of the various canes under cultivation in different 

 circumstances have been fairly accurately determined. But, when we attempt 

 to draw conclusions from this material, we see that the subject has rarely been 

 treated from a scientific point of view, and in almost every case there is an 

 absence of the careful consideration of external factors which might be expected 

 to have influence. We still wait for an exhaustive treatment of the subject 

 with scientific safeguards. The present paper may be regarded as, in some 

 sort, preparatory to such work being undertaken. 



It will be well, in the first place, to consider exactly what the term implies- 

 Tiller is an old English word allied to the telgor of the Anglo-Saxon, meaning 

 a plant or shoot, and akin to the Dutch telen, to breed. At present it is, 

 properly speaking, confined to the mode of branching characteristic of grasses. 

 This consists in the multiplication of shoots, in the young plants, from the 

 lower, short jointed portion of the stem, immediately below the surface of 

 the ground. As we have noted elsewhere, this branching is the main work 

 of the plant during its earlier period of gro^^'i;h. If the seed is sown too deep, 

 one or more elongated internodes bring it to the surface, and then the joints 

 become short and congested and branching commences (PI. V, fig. 6). 

 Shoots are not only given off by the main stem, but its branches may in their 

 turn give off ahoots, until a large number are produced. Branching in the 

 upper, aerial part of the plant is less developed, occurs at a later period of 

 growth and has nothing to do with tillering (c/. Percival, Agricultural Botany, 

 where the matter is somewhat fully dealt with). 



The factors influencing the amount of tillering in any plant are both 

 inherent and external. Different species and varieties, as well as the seedlings 

 raised in batches from the same parents, differ enormously in this character ; 



