55 



Taken collectively, the cane from Hog is quite similar in composition 

 to that of Bago, a condition hardly to be expected in view of the 

 marked dissimilarity between the soils of the two districts and the' 

 fact that the majority of the canes examined in Hog were ratooas 

 while those from Bago were all from the first planting. Probably 

 these are compensating differences, since both a poor soil and the grow- 

 ing of ratoon crops have an apparent tendency to produce a cane rather 

 smaller and richer than the ordinary. In the case of Hog, also, the 

 analyses were made during the month of April, at the latter end of 

 the gi-inding season, after several weeks of dry, hot weather, when all 

 the cane would naturally be somewhat drier and richer than usual, so 

 that in all probability an average of the crop throughout the year in 

 this district would be considerably larger and somewhat poorer in 

 sucrose than the figures quoted. Few of the individual canes in this 

 list vary sufficiently from the average to indicate any distinctions due 

 to the soil in which they are growing. 



Numbers 32 and 33 again illustrate the difference often noted between a loam 

 or clay and a sandy soil, although the two fields from which they were taken 

 are adjoining ones and their soils chemically much the same. Number 33, al- 

 though by no means a poor cane, is still decidedly lower in sucrose and fiber than 

 number 32, the one from the heavier soil,® while its higher reducing sugar content, 

 1 per cent, w'ould almost indicate that it was hardly ripe, yet both fields were 

 of the same age. The higher fiber of number 34 was probably brought about by 

 the long time it had remained in the ground, becoming thoroughly mature and 

 dry. Number 35 shows the damage done by locusts in stunting the growth of 

 a cane field, even when they do not entirely destroy it. Number 36, from a light 

 loam with sandy subsoil, is characteristically lower in sucrose, while number 38,, 

 from a very similar soil, not only does not show this distinction, but is consider- 

 ably purer and richer in sucrose than the average. 



SAX CABLOS. 



The larger of the two important sugar centers on the east coast 

 is situated in the northern part of jSTegros, directly across the island 

 from La Carlota, on the arbitrar}^ dividing line separating Occidental 

 and Oriental Xegros. The town of San Carlos, about the center of 

 this district, possesses a safe, although not very deep, harbor, formed 

 by a projecting point of land and a slight indentation in the coast^' 

 at which point a small wharf or lorcha landing has been built. Pro- 

 tected by its own coast line from the northeast monsoon, the harbor is 

 quite calm during the grinding season, and is sheltered from the south- 

 west winds of the rainy season by the small island of Eefugio, lying 



' According to mechanical analysis, neither of these soils contain a large 

 amount of clay, but the one producing cane, number 32, is decidedly finer in 

 texture than its neighbor. 



