C. A. BARBER 



83 



shoots was reached. At first he dealt with very large areas, planting them 

 with rows 4 and 5 feet apart. There appeared to be no increase in the number 

 of canes with the wider spacing, rather the reverse, and he decided to concen- 

 trate on varying the distance of the plants in the rows. But, in this case also, 

 the results were inconclusive, and this he put down to the varying soil condi- 

 tions and the impossibility of planting control plots in such large experiments. 

 He therefore instituted a number of experiments on plots one-tenth of a bouw 

 in area (practically 17 tenths of an acre or, as it is termed in Madras, 17 cents). 

 The rows were, as usual, 4 feet apart and about 30 feet long. In these he 

 planted Black Cheribon, J. 247 and J. 100, varieties which were of importance 

 in his area. The sets were planted 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 to the row. Count- 

 ings were made of the shoots above ground at 60, 90, 120 and 150 days from 

 sowing, which, presumably, roughly coincided with the different earthings up ; 

 and, 14 days after the last counting of shoots, he counted the canes formed, with 

 a convention which seems to hold in Java of taking two or even three thin canes 

 as the equivalent of one thick one. Muller von Czernicki complains repeatedly 

 of the depredations of thieves and other injuries in his small plots ; the presence 

 of sereh is also commented on in the plots planted with locally raised seed, 

 but these injuries are of less moment in the early countings, in which we are 

 most interested here, than in the final crop. Numerous tables and graphs 

 illustrate his paper and of these one table and two graphs are reproduced, as 

 the paper is in Dutch and not easily available. In the table one notes with 

 surprise the very early general development of branches from the sets, a 

 steady decline usually following, after the first couple of months. Muller von 

 Czernicki concludes as follows with regard to the three varieties tested :— 



The number of shoots counted at different periods, with sets planted at 

 different distances apart — Muller von Czernicki. 

 1908 crop. 



Number 

 of sets 

 planted 

 per row 



Number 

 of plots 

 averaged 



Number ok shoots counted at 



Ist earth- 

 ing up 



Ind earth 

 ing up 



3rd earth 

 ing up 



Last 



earthing 



up 



Crop in 

 pikuls 

 After the per bouw 

 last earth , (\j acres) 

 ing up 



Sucrose 



% i'l the 



juice 



Generatie Cheribon 



