C. A. BARBER 59 



but this difierence is often cloaked by a number of surrounding circumstances, 

 all of which seem to be translatable into the amount of food available, and of 

 these, space, light, water, soil, and manure appear to be the most important. 



We have followed the early stages of the sugarcane seedling somewhat 

 carefully in a previous section, and it is at once evident that this mode of 

 branching is present in it, and, therefore, that true tillering occurs in the 

 sugarcane. We usually judge of the vigour of the cane seedlings grown at the 

 Cane-breeding Station, by counting the numbers of canes and shoots at harvest 

 time, and we thus have a certain amount of information as to the tillering 

 capacity of the progeny of different parents, and the accompanying table 

 gives a summary of these details. AVhile examining the figures in this table, 

 it will be well to note the spacing and rainfall for each year : 

 1911-13. Botanic Garden : plants 6' apart, in pits measuring 3' each wav, 



filled with soil and manure : 1,200 per acre : rainfall 31-23." 

 1912-U. Cane-breeding Station : fields 7, 8 and 9, sandy loam, but insuffi- 

 ciently prepared : 6' apart, in pits measuring 2' each way : 1,200 

 per acre : rainfall 2108". In this and the following cases the pits 

 or trenches filled with prepared soil. 



1913-15. Fields 10 and 11, clayey loam : 5' apart, in pits measuring 2' each 

 w^ay : 1,740 per acre : rainfall 36-49" : canes counted at U months. 



1914-16. Fields 15 and 16 and parts of 12 and 13, clayey loam : 4|' X5|' apart, 

 in pits measuring U' each way : 1,740 per acre : rainfall 23*03". 



1915-17. Fields 17-20, clayey loam : planted in trenches I'xU', the jjlants 

 4'X5' apart : 1,921 per acre : rainfall 24-97". 



1916-18. Fields 10 and 11, clayey loam : trenches 1' X 1|', the plants 

 4' X 2f' apart : 3,760 per acre : rainfall 19-31". 



The 1911-13 plants were treated exceptionally Avell in their large pits 

 of prepared earth, and the rainfall Mas good : the pits were smaller for the 

 1912-14 seedlings and the rainfall was meagre : the 1913-15 plants had the 

 benefit of heavy, well distributed rain, but the rainfall for the 1914-16 plants 

 was again meagre : in 1915-17 there was fair rain and the plants were 1,921 

 to the acre ; but in 1916-18 a marked drought occurred and the plants were 

 nearly twice as close together. Taking the size of the pits or trenches filled 

 with prepared earth together with the spacing, we see a continual narrowiin^ 

 of the limits of good soil in successive years. The rainfall was excessive in 

 1911- 13 and 1913-15, extremely meagre in 1912-14 and 1916-18. In 1913-15 

 the cane countinf^ was done later than usual. 



