Inlemational Diffusion of Technology: A Case Study of Sugarcane Varieties 35 



"Bourbon" or "Otaheite" cane was discovered on the island of 

 Tahiti in the Pacific and later introduced to all cane-growing areas 

 of the world. It proved to be superior to the Creole variety and 

 eventually replaced it as the dominant cane in most producing 

 countries. It is of interest to note that it was not introduced to the 

 British West Indies, a major cane-producing area, until 1785-96, 

 more than a hundred years after it was first known to have been 

 commercially produced in Madagascar and on Bourbon (or Re- 

 union) island. Produced under a variety of names (Lahania, Vellai, 

 Louiser) it dominated world production until it became subject to 

 disease in 1840 in Mauritius, in 1860 in Puerto Rico, in the 1890s 

 in the British West Indies, and in the early twentieth century in 

 Hawaii. 



A third major set of wild canes, the "Batavian," were dis- 

 covered in Java around 1782. These canes were eventually pro- 

 duced in many countries (including Cystalina in Cuba, Rose Bam- 

 boo in Hawaii, and the Transparent canes in the British West In- 

 dies), but were not always superior to the Bourbon cane. After the 

 disease epidemics in the Bourbon cane, the Batavian varieties 

 became dominant. However, they were later subject to the Sereh 

 disease in many parts of the world. Other wild varieties were dis- 

 covered in the late 1800s, including the Tanas from New 

 Hebrides, Badila from New Guinea, and Uba, probably from In- 

 dia. Badila and Uba became important varieties because of their 

 resistance to the cane diseases that became increasingly prevalent 

 from 1890 to 1925 (Aykroyd 1967, Barnes 1967, Grammer 1947). 



Stage 2— Sexual Reproduction: The Noble Canes 



The original sugarcane varieties undoubtedly arose as seedlings 

 from rare cases of natural sexual reproduction. It was not until 

 1858 that any record of the existence of cane seedlings was re- 

 ported. J. W. Parris, a sugar planter in Barbados, British West In- 

 dies, reported that an employee had noticed cane seedlings grow- 

 ing in a field of ratoon cane (a cane crop obtained from the 

 regrowth after harvesting the original crop). He was satisfied that 

 these seedlings had grown from the cane "arrows." Parris man- 

 aged to save seven of the seedlings and eventually raised four- 

 and-a-half acres of cane from them. Finding that these new canes 



