612 THE farmers' handbook. 



have been ploughed up, and harvested early enough to allow a short 

 tallow before the next cane crop need be sown. We have indicated at an 

 earlier stage, too, that many cane-growers have found that the land can b»* 

 profitably sown with grasses and clovers, or even allowed to lapse into couch 

 grass pasture and devoted to dairying for a few years. The effect is the 

 renovation of the soil, and the starving out of fungi that have established 

 themselves, and the crops of cane obtained when the land is returned to the 

 main crop are instructive as well as profitable. 



The possibilities of change of crop are thus considerable, and should be 

 attractive. 



Tt is opportune, however, to urge upon farmers the use of legumes more 

 extensively. If the fertility of the soil is to be maintained under such con- 

 ditions as sugar cane demands, it can only be by the growth of crops with the 

 specific object of maintaining humus. How efficient legumes are for this 

 purpose our growers of cane already well know. How little they make use 

 of them we have already indicated. Yet, excellent legumes offer themselves 

 for each of the rivers. On the Clarence and Richmond, for instance, cowpeas 

 produce heavy crops of foliage and of seed in summer, and vetches do well in 

 the winter. On the volcanic soils of the Tweed, Florida velvet and Lablab 

 beans make vigorous growth in summer, and vetches have proved their ability 

 to make good growth in the winter. 



Manures and Fertilisers. 



Fertilisers are not extensively used. Trials have been conducted by dif- 

 ferent farmers in their own ways, but properly arranged experiments aio' 

 required before anything definite can be said. Appearances seem to indicate 

 that provided the fertility of the land is well and properly maintained, the 

 only utility of the fertilisers is in connection with the ratoon crop. Some 

 fanners favour boned ust with a little blood added, others again have had 

 fair results with a complete fertiliser, and yet others again have been well 

 pleased with their experience <»f nitrate of soda. It can be said with some 

 certainty that fertilisers are likely to be profitable when used on the green 

 manure or rotation crops, and they should not be omitted when maize is 

 sown. 



THE QUESTION OF VARIETIES. 



The importance of plant improvement, in relation to sugar cane, is so fully 

 recognised in Louisiana — where the production of sugar is perhaps as large 

 as anywhere in the world — that cross-breeding and improvement by selection 

 go on as regular features year after year. Results encouraging as to both 

 total yield and sugar-content have been obtained, and the work is now on 

 an extensive scale. In one year, it is recorded, at least 1,805 varieties were 

 under test — many of them being worthless, of course, but a few being 

 promising. Cane growers in Louisiana are much interested in the work, and 

 already varieties have been produced that are expected to put a very 

 different aspect on the industry there. 



At the same time, there has been, and perhaps still is in Australia, a 

 disposition to regard new varieties as so many talismans for the solution of 

 all cane growers' troubles. The notion is obviously unsound. What is 

 wanted is the best variety for the conditions, quite apart from whether it is 

 new or old, and at the same time the consistent selection of seed from 

 vigorous and disease-free plants. That there is a good deal to be known on 



