CANE AND BEET 21 



that country there is practically no rain. Fortunately 

 there are splendid means for easy and effectual irrigation. 

 Where this is the case some of the heaviest crops in the 

 world are produced under a system of thoroughly 

 scientific irrigation. In the Sandwich Islands, for 

 instance, it is known, and has been recorded, that crops 

 of more than fifty tons of cane to the acre have been 

 produced. Here we have the wonderful crops of Java 

 easily eclipsed. 



There is one more detail about the sugar cane which 

 must be noted. The wild cane produces seed, but the 

 cultivated variety has become so accustomed to growing 

 from cuttings that it has, as a rule, forgotten how to 

 produce seed. It has been discovered recently that 

 seed can be found, and that it will produce canes. 

 These seedling canes come up in very various qualities, 

 some perhaps better than the existing kinds. Men 

 of science have set to work to select from these seedlings 

 and endeavour to produce a cane that will possess a 

 maximum of good qualities, each selection to be the 

 one most suitable to a particular soil and climate and, 

 especially, to be the most powerful in resisting disease. 

 The growers of cane sugar have thus at last found an 

 opportunity of following the example of the beetroot 

 industry. 



In the European beetroot countries the process of 

 selection has been going on for generations. The 

 roots used to yield five to six per cent, of sugar ; now 

 they yield thirteen to fifteen per cent. In 1908, a very 

 exceptional season, the average yield for the whole of 

 Germany was nearly seventeen per cent., and for 

 Bohemia even more. This is a truly wonderful advance, 

 entirely thanks to the producers of beetroot seed. By 

 constantly selecting the richest roots for planting in 

 their seed nurseries they have gradually advanced year 



