C. A. BARBER 6i 



Where comparisons are obtainable, the rainfall of 1913-15 appears to have 

 made itself felt, and. possibly the high rate of tillering of the Karun seedlings 

 may have been partly influenced by it. The converse may be the case in 

 1916-18, a year of badly distributed and meagre rainfall. But the crop is 

 plentifully irrigated and the influence of rainfall on the tillering is perhaps 

 more apparent than real. The quantity of prepared earth and the spacing 

 are much more likeh' to affect the tillering of the canes. This is quite obvious 

 in the jumps from 1915-17 to 1916-18, but less so before that time. In the 

 thick cane seedlings, indeed, there is little difference (15-13), but, where thin 

 canes enter as parents, in part or whole, the decline in tillering is more marked, 

 as it is also in the very aberrant rogues, formed among the thick cane seedlings. 

 Rogues, 69, 97, 88, 56, 47, 30 : thin canes, 48, 43, 37, 21, 18 : Cheni 1911-13 (48), 

 1912-14 (44), 1914-16 (35), and so on. We are justified in concluding that the 

 thick canes have been little inconvenienced by the narrowing of their limits 

 in the field, owing possibly to the sparse nature of their branching ; the thin 

 canes, however, with their greater tillering power, have become considerably 

 hampered in their developmoit in the successive restrictions, in spite of the 

 general improvement of the land since the farm was opened. 



We can also see from the table that a study of the numbers of canes 

 produced at crop time places in our hands a useful means of detecting whether 

 an attempted cross between a thick and thin cane has succeeded, and we have 

 become accustomed to use this character whenever in doubt on the subject 

 (c/. Remarks on thick and thin canes in 1915-17 in the table). There is, 

 generally, a constant increase in the numbers of canes as we proceed from 

 pure blooded thick canes, through crosses between thick and thin, to such as 

 have more thin than thick parentage and, finally, to such as have Saccharum 

 spontaneum added. 



(2) In cultivated canes. 



With regard to the ordinary cane varieties planted from sets, it is well 

 known that they differ a good deal in their amount of tillering. Thus the 

 indigenous Indian canes tiller much more freely than the thicker canes of the 

 tropics. This is the common experience of the Cane-breeding Station and, 

 what is more, the descendants of these two classes of cane varieties inherit 

 their parents' characters in this respect. Detai's regarding the Indian canes 

 are few and far between. Practically the only comparative statement we 

 have come across is one regarding canes grown at tSabour in Bihar. ^ In 



1 Wocclhouso. Basil and Taylor. The distinguishing characters of sugarcanes cultivate J 

 at Sabour. Mem. Dep. Agri., Ind., Bot. Ser., Vol. VII, No. 2, April, 1915. 



