Cross- 

 pollination 

 Accomplished. 



High Yield. 



SACCHARUM 



OFPICINARUM THE SUGAR-CANE PLANT 



Seedlings 



absolutely seedless. As long ago as 1858 Parris had raised seedlings 

 from it in Barbados, and in 1888 Bovell and Harrison, in the same island, 

 and Soltwedel in Java, succeeded in accomplishing it. This opened the 

 way to improvement by seminal variation, which was at once taken 

 advantage of. Thousands of seedlings were raised from seed taken from 

 known seed-parents, but of which the pollination was uncertain. Selection 

 was made of those with a vigorous habit and a high saccharine content. 



In 1904 Lewton- Brain succeeded in hybridising known varieties by 

 artificial cross-pollination. It thus became possible to breed on definite 

 lines so as to combine the desirable characters of particular races. One 

 object would be to obtain those which would resist the disease which 

 had led to the abandonment of the cultivation of the Bourbon cane. 

 Seedlings produced in Barbados (about 1899-1900), and known as " B 147 " 

 and " B 208," have both been found to yield fully half a ton per acre 

 more sugar than " Caledonian Queen," and fully three-quarters of a 

 ton more than " Bourbon." They have, in fact, been stated to pro- 

 duce, under favourable conditions, fully 3| tons per acre, the best canes 

 formerly grown having yielded only 2*53 tons, so that these seedling stocks 

 showed an increased yield of 37 per cent. 



[C/. Kew Bull, 1888, 294 ; 1889, 242 ; 1891, 10-24 ; 1894, 84-6 ; 1896, 

 167-70; Journ. Linn. Soc., 1891, xxviii., 197-201; Agri. Gaz. N.-S. Wales, 

 1891, ii., 428-9 (which republished paper from Revue Agricole regarding experi- 

 ments in Mauritius) ; Hart, Rept. Seedling Canes, Trinidad, 1898-1900, No. 120 ; 

 D' Albuquerque and Bovell. I.e. Imp. Dept. Agri. W. Indies (pamphlet ser.), 1900, 

 No. 3 ; 1901, No. 12 ; 1902, Nos. 19, 20 ; 1903, Nos. 26, 27 ; 1906, Nos. 39, 40 ; 

 West Ind. Bull, (containing reports of Agri. Conference), 1900, 5., 147-51, 182-4, 

 380-6 ; ii., 23-32 ; iii., 29-46 ; Colonial Repts. W. Indies, (misc.), 1906, No. 36, 

 v.-xviii., i.-iii. ; Bull. Imp. Inst., July 1903, 81-8 ; Louisiana, Planter and 

 Sugar Manufacturer, March 1905, 154-9, 172-3; 1906, 156-9; Agri. News, iv., v. 

 (many passages); Cult, of Sugar in Philippines, in Trop. Agrist., Oct. 1905, 

 585-6 ; Freeman, Current Invest, in Econ. Bot., in New Phytologist, 1905, iv., 

 103-14 et seq ; Morris and Stockdale, Improv. by Selection and Hybridisation, Rept. 

 Third Conf. on Genetics (issued by Roy. Hort. Soc.), 1906, 310-35 ; Lectures 

 to Sugar Planters (issued by Imp. Dept. Agri. W. Ind.), 1906.] 



CULTIVATION. 



Area and Yield of Sugar-cane and Sugar. There is perhaps no 

 other aspect of the sugar industry of India regarding which more obscurity 

 prevails than the Provincial and Imperial averages of yield of cane to the 

 acre and of sugar to the cane. Moreover, returns are only available for 

 six of the provinces, though these embrace about 95 per cent, of the 

 sugar-cane area. The provinces covered by the official Memoranda, 

 issued by the Director- General of Commercial Intelligence, are (1) Bengal, 

 (2) Eastern Bengal and Assam, (3) the United Provinces of Agra and 

 Oudh, (4) the Panjab, (5) the North-West Frontier Province and (6) 

 Madras. The areas omitted are (7) Bombay and Sind, (8) the Central 

 Provinces and Berar, (9) Burma, and (10) the Native States. For the 

 past eight years the first six provinces have shown an average of 2,307,618 

 acres under the crop, with a yield of 1,988,211 tons of crude sugar (gur). 

 This gives an average of I'l acres to the ton of crude sugar, or say one ton 

 to the acre, provided it be accepted as safe to frame any such estimate. 

 But it must be observed that the crude sugar of India is ordinarily a much 

 inferior article to that indicated by the estimates of sugar-production in 

 most other countries. Thus, for example, much of the imports by India 

 from Java are considerably below the Continental standard. To correct 



938 



Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Cane to 

 Acre. 

 Sugar. 

 to Cane. 



Indian Areas 

 Returned. 



Yield of Our. 



Grades of 

 Eaw Sugar. 



