IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 



81 



"dryness" or juiciness of the canes) ; (4) the richness of the juice in sucrose; 

 (5) the purity of the juice — that is, the absence of glucose, etc. 



SELECTION OF EXISTING VARIETIES. 



During the last forty years collections of selected sugar canes obtained 

 from various countries have been maintained imder experimental cultivation 

 at Java, Queensland, Mauritius, and in the West Indies. This was the original 

 form of research in the endeavor to obtain richer and more hardy canes. In 

 Jamaica, from 1875 to 1886, there were about sixty varieties of named canes 

 cultivated at the Botanical Gardens in that island. A list, with description, 

 was published in the Report of the Director for the year 1884. Similar collec- 

 tions were also under experimental cultivation at Trinidad, British Guiana 

 and Barbados. Francis at British Guiana and Harrison at Barbados were 

 the first to start chemical investigations with the object of carefully deter- 

 mining the sugar contents of the cane and estimating the relative merits of 

 those under cultivation in the West Indies. These investigations were started 

 about 1883, and have been confirmed by Harrison and others until the present 

 time. The results of the examination of existing varieties has not led to 

 any very striking or definite results. In countries where the Otaheite and Bour- 

 bon canes are still free from disease, and the conditions are favorable for 

 their growth. No other canes have, as yet, entirely taken their place. At Bar- 

 bados, Antigua and St. Kitts, where the cultivation of the Bourbon cane has 

 become impossible on account of its liability to fungous disease, other intro- 

 duced canes are largely grown. There are also some seedling canes, but of 

 these I shall speak later. 



BUD VARIETIES. 



A summary of information relating to canes raised as the result of bud 

 variation (illustrated by colored plates) is published in the West Indian Bul- 

 letin, ii., pp. 216-223. Bud variation is not uncommonly met with in the sugar 

 cane. Instances are recorded from Mauritius, Louisiana, Barbados, and 

 Queensland. The differences between the sport and the mother plant are often 

 as considerable as between the standard varieties of sugar cane. Bud varia- 

 tion may give rise to: (a) differently colored sports on the one cane; (b) 

 differently colored canes in one stool springing from the same mother cane; 

 (c) a single cane with some joints striped and others unstriped. It has been 

 noticed that colored canes raised from sports tend to come true to color. 

 Finally the canes that have hitherto given rise to sports are striped or ribbon 

 canes. 



In the matter of the distinctive character exhibited by sports it is recorded 

 by Home (Mauritius) that "most of the sports seem to be hardier than their 

 parents and to yield more sugar;" Clark (Queensland) that "yellow sports 

 have a tendency to grow sweeter than the colored canes of the kindred 

 variety;" Stubbs (Louisiana) states, "the sugar contents of sports are fully 

 equal to those of the ribbon and purple canes over which they have as yet no 

 pronounced excellencies." 



The systematic cultivation and testing of canes derived from bud varieties 

 are being carried on by d' Albuquerque and Bovell, under the auspices of the 

 Imperial Department of Agriculture at Barbados. The results will be pub- 

 lished in the official reports issued by the Department. 



