168 PERIODICrTY IN THE (illOWTlI OF SUGARCA-N]'] 



JaiiLiarv in Na<2,pur to April at the Coimbatore Central Farm. In South India 

 the sets germinate within a week or ten days from planting and, if they do 

 not appear then, it is often the custom to replant the field, but in North India 

 one must sometimes wait for several weeks before there are any signs of the 

 young shoots. To calculate the rate of groAvth, one should perhaps take the 

 date at which the young shoots appear, because the protrusion of the leafy 

 shoot is the first act of the germinating set, but we hiave at present no means 

 of determining this date. To obtain a full picture of the relative growth in 

 North India and the tropics, further observations will be necessary, and it 

 may be well to divide it into definite periods as follows : — (1) Period of branch- 

 ing, during which the plant remains low and devotes itself to the business of 

 tillering. This is probably a good deal longer in North India, where the thin 

 canes have far more branches than the thicker South Indian varieties. 



(2) Period of active elongation of the stem, or cane formation. This is a good 

 deal shorter in North Ind'a and probably cane formation is more rapid. 



(3) Period of ripening. This is better defined in North India, and is \^^th 

 difficulty separated from the growth in length in the South. The careful 

 comparison of these periods in the North and South of India is a piece of 

 work w^hich is well worth doing. 



It is, further, to be noted that, in this paper, only indigenous Indian 

 canes are considered, and only a few of these, not perhaps very well adapted 

 for the purpose, as they were the only ones readily available for comparison. 

 There is little doubt that, if the series had been extended and, especially, 

 if thick canes had been included, the differences between the two great regions 

 would have been emphasized. As it was, many of the indigenous canes grown 

 in South India were obviously handicapped by being in uncongenial surround- 

 ings, and this is ascribed chiefly to the heavy and impermeable nature of the 

 soil, and the consequent difficulty experienced by the plants in obtaining 

 moisture . 



Lastly, the observations were confined to canes growing in Government 

 farms. The conditions on these vary a good deal, much greater care being 

 expended on the plots in some places than in others. It may usually be 

 assumed that the cane growth is better on the farm than in the surrounding 

 cultivators' fields, but this is not always the case. For instance, the wet 

 land in the Coimbatore Farm, although good for paddy, is not specially suited 

 to cane growing. It would not be selected by cultivators for that purpose. 

 Similarly, the land in the Cane-breeding Station, which is eminently suited 

 for compelling the canes to arrow, is not, as yet, sugarcane land. It is probable 



