34 



number 19 being noticeably superior in every constituent, and especially so as 

 regards lime. Of course, the greater permeability of number 19 has much to do 

 with its superiority, but this difference in physical characteristics is probably 

 brought about to some extent by the larger amount of lime which number 19 

 carries, the value of lime in a soil being due not so much to the nutriment it 

 affords a plant as to the beneficial effect it has on the physical character of the 

 soil itself, keeping it light and porous, and, in the case of a heavy clay, preserving 

 its tilth by acting as a colloid precipitant and destroying its tendency to form a 

 plastic mass. 



The general average of the soils from Bago, as given above, may be taken 

 as just about the normal type for this district from a chemical point of view, 

 anything running much below this in potash, lime, phosphoric acid, and nitrogen 

 being in all probability not very productive. Numbers 27 and 28, characteristic 

 types of the poor land between Bago and Bacolod, are practically valueless for 

 cane grov;ing, as may readily be seen from their analyses. Number 21 is a 

 curious example of a soil which is considered to be too rich for cane. This partic- 

 ular field was, in former times, the site of an old sugar mill, -with its surrounding 

 "plaza" for sun drying bagasse, and the comparative richness of the soil here is 

 undoubtedly due to the bagasse ash, scums, trash, etc., which such a place in time 

 accumulates. Quite recently the old sugar house was torn down and the land 

 planted for the first time in cane. This soil, while very much richer than any 

 other in Bago, is not superior to good cane soils from other districts of Negros 

 except in its phosphoric acid content, and, chemically speaking, there is a priori no 

 reason why it should not produce a good quality of sugar. Mechanical analysis 

 shows it to be made up largely of very fine sand and silt, with relatively little 

 clay, a condition tending toward rapid gro\vth, but a less sweet cane. The cane 

 found growing here will be considered later under "Other varieties of cane grown 

 in. Negros," as, although it really belongs to the common purple or native variety, 

 its composition is so different from that ordinarily grown in Bago that to include 

 it in the table of analyses of canes grown in this vicinity would considerably alter 

 their general average. 



ANALYSES OF CANE FROM THE DISTRICT OF BAGO. 



The method employed in sampling and analyzing cane from this 

 and other districts was practically the following: 



Twenty canes were collected from a field at the time its soil was sampled, five, 

 as a rule, being cut from individual stools growing near the spots where each 

 of the four samples of soil was taken. No especial care was taken except as nearly 

 as possible to select representative samples in regard to size and appearance of 

 the canes growing in each location. -Dead and noticeably immature specimens 

 were, of course, rejected. The sample of twenty canes was carried to the labora- 

 tory and reduced to a workable bulk by quartering, the upper fourth of the first 

 cane, the second fourth of the second cane, etc., being reserved for analysis, so that 

 the final sample consisted of twenty pieces of cane, five each from the different 

 quarters. These were then weighed and passed through a small hand mill, by 

 which an extraction of about 70 per cent was obtained. The resulting bagasse 

 was weighed and the juice determined by difference, after which juice and 

 bagasse were analyzed separatelj^ and the results calculated to percentages on 

 the entire cane. 



