130 TILLERING IN INDIAN SUGARCANES 



With this table before ua, the question naturally arises as to how we can 

 use it for determining the rate of maturing. We may do so in a variety of ways. 

 We may compare the average number of canes per clump in each group or 

 section ; we may calculate the number of canes in the total number of shoots ; 

 we may contrast the canes over 3' with those under that length ; we may do 

 the same with the total number of shoots ; and, lastly, we may compare the 

 number of cane-forming shoots at 3-5 months with the average number formed 

 at harvest in the same plots. There are, however, objections to all of these 

 methods, even when the relative ages of the plants at the time of dissection 

 have been allowed for. In the first, we neglect the inherent tillering capacity 

 of the different varieties, in the second the Sunnabile and Nargori groups are 

 favoured because of the very small number of small shoots which are developed 

 in them, in the third and fourth we discriminate in favour of forms with long 

 canes such as Saretha as against the short-caned forms such as Mungo, and in the 

 last we neglect the habitual deaths which take place during the life of the plant 

 and which are so numerous in the Thick canes, for instance, that there are 

 actually more canes forming per clump at 5 months than there are at harvest- 

 But something may be learnt, with proper safeguards, from a study in each of 

 these directions, and the results have been grouped in the following table. 

 In this, besides the averages for each group, the brown and green sections 

 of Saretha are given separately, in the Sunnabile group Dhor and Sunnabile are 

 taken as a sub-section (Dhor) and compared with the rest (Dhaulu), and Kharwi 

 is similarly treated separately in the Mungo group. The other groups appear 

 to be more homogeneous, but, in the Thick canes, Mayh and Vendamukhi, 

 as noted above, are very nmch behind Yerra, Java and Red Mauritius. In 

 each of the arrangements 1-5, the groups are placed in order of development 

 from top to bottom. 



