LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith, and to recommend for 

 publication as a Farmers' Bulletin, the manuscript of a paper on "The 

 cultivation of sugar cane." 



The importance of the sugar industry to these Islands can hardly be 

 overstated. At the present time it furnishes all the sugar required for 

 domestic consumption and a surplus for export, which, in 1900 amounted 

 to 143,719,971 pounds valueu at $2,397,144, and, with the exception of 

 hemp, this industry gives employment to more of our rural population 

 than any other branch of agriculture. Diminished cane areas, dimin- 

 ished crops, and diminished profits entail suffering in the rural districts 

 that extends far beyond the landed proprietor or owner of a sugar estate. 

 Abandoned cane fields and idle mills throughout the Archipelago indicate 

 a depression of such magnitude as to render it incumbent upon this 

 Bureau to do everything in its power to remedy these conditions. 



The causes producing the present depression in the sugar industry, 

 other than those resulting from the prevailing financial conditions and 

 excessive rates of interest on mortgage loans, are to be found both upon 

 the farm and in the mill. The present practices plainly indicate a lack 

 of knowledge of certain fundamental principles in cane cultivation, and 

 the purpose of this paper is to place before the cane grower in compact 

 form the elementary information essential to the success which lies 

 within his reach. 



Bespectfulty, 



WILLIAM S. LYON, 

 Expert in Tropical Agriculture. 

 Prof. F. LAMSON-SCRIBNER, 



Chief, Insular Bureau of Agriculture. 



