94 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANeS 



dilierent orders are displayed or the variation in the sucrose from early to late 

 formed canes ; and we have recently discovered that a study of the joint 

 curves of the Pansahi varieties shows tliat there is a well marked periodicity 

 in the growth during the season.^ But it is a question whether this almost 

 mathematical regularity in growth is shared by other classes of indigenous 

 canes or is merely a character of this strongly marked group. And the answer 

 to this question is at present by no means easy to give. 



A reference to Memoir II (p. 159) will show that, while it was easy to 

 separate the Pansahi canes into classes, this was found to be next to impossible 

 in the other varieties examined at the same time, Ekar, Baroukha and Kayhza ; 

 also that, when the attempt had been made, there was no trace of the regular 

 decrease in sucrose in the branches of succeeding orders. Assuming that it 

 would be nnich easier, with our increased knowledge of the characters, to 

 separate the as, 6s, cs, (fe, etc., of each clumj), all the other varieties which had 

 been dissected were treated in the 1917-18 crop as were those of the Pansahi 

 group. Unfortunately, in my absence, and througli a misunderstanding, 

 the work was not done until May, when most of the canes, at any rate the 

 earlier ones, were overripe or withered. The members of the Paiu.ahi class 

 seem to have been little affected by this, but it may be the cause for the other 

 varieties failing to show any regularity in the richness of the canes of different 

 orders of branching. On a study of the results of analysis, the figures are so 

 irregular that no object would be attained by their reproduction here, and 

 they are merely recorded in the office files for future reference. There is no 

 trace of the regular decrease in sucrose content from the early to the late canes 

 in these tables, and the matter must be left undecided, until a more satisfactory 

 series of experiments can be conducted. But, on considering the matter 

 carefully, it occurs to us that it will be a matter of some difficulty to conduct 

 such a series of experiments. As each clump approaches maturity, the average 

 richness of its canes increases. This also occurs in each of its individual canes, 

 but they do not run parallel in their improvement, in that the earlier ones 

 will be ripe before the later ones. It appears, from a great number of analyses 

 which we have made at various times, that, while the plants are young, there 

 is a great difference in the richness of the juice in the canes of different orders 

 of branching, but that this difierence gradually diminishes as the usual harvest- 

 i ng time approaches ; and, when it has passed, that the juice of the earlier 

 formed canes commences to deteriorate until it is distinctly poorer than that 



1 A paper was presented at the Lahore Science Congress, Jan. 1918, in which this 

 periodicity was dealt with. (The subject is further dealt with in a Memoir now in the press j 

 February 1919.) 



