C. A. BARBER 91 



As to Java, Kobus lays it down as the result of his observations and experi- 

 ments that even a difference of 10 per cent, in the number of canes per acre may 

 very well go with the same yield of sugar. From this, we gather that the number 

 of canes, which we have seen to be influenced by spacing, is not too closely con- 

 nected with the yield of sugar, and therefore that the effect of spacing is of 

 little import within moderate limits. This statement of Kobus is taken up by 

 Striiben, who argues in its favour and states that the Editor of the Archief, 

 the principal organ of the Java industry, has long held the same view. 

 Kilian's experiment of planting canes in rows, 3|,' 4' and 5' apart, gave results 

 from which he gathers that, in J. 247, the current distance of 4' caimot be 

 altered with advantage. In the two controlled experiments on dry loam, 

 the yields of sugar in pikuls per bouw for these spacings were respectively 

 197, 201, 199 and 210, 206 and 201 ; while another uncontrolled experiment 

 on heavy black clay gave 162, 181, 158. Muller von Czernicki found, in crop 

 experiments of 3 to 4 acres each over 175 acres, that a spacing varying as 2 : 3 

 made practically no difference as to yield of sugar. We may therefore con- 

 clude, that, with good cultivation, the yield of sugar, influenced as it is by so 

 many factors, has no intimate relation to the spacing of the plants, and that 

 this may accordingly vary within moderately wide liinits without disadvantage. 

 These limits have to be determined in each place and with each variety 

 separately. 



(7) Note on the relative richness of the juice in branches of 

 different orders. 



Kobus has made an oft-repeated generalization, after years of experiment, 

 that, in a cane field, " thicker clumps have heavier canes and richer juice." 

 Van der Stok also asserts that, in a general crop, the thick canes have more 

 sugar in their juice. ^ Stubbs showed that, in the Louisiana crops, the mother 

 canes had richer juice than the branches from it, but he failed to convince us 

 that the earlier branches also had better juice than the later. In Java, WTiters 

 generally take exception to this imputed superiority of the mother canes, and 

 Muller von Czernicki asserts his conviction that, provided the crop rijjens, 

 as it generally does there, there is no difference in the juice of the different 

 orders of branching. This rather discounts the Louisiana results, for a crop 

 reaped at seven months from planting can hardly be considered by cane growers 

 in the tropics as properly matured. But, on the other hand, we have failed to 



^ J. E. Vander Stok, in Friiwirth's Die ziichtung der Lundwirth-dchafilichen, Kultur-flanzen 

 Zuckerrohr 



