SUGAR 127 



and well-formed pollen grains were seen upon the stigmas 

 of the flowers. A cane-breeding station was accordingly 

 opened at Coinrbatore in March, 1913, and a large 

 number of seedlings have been raised there already, 

 besides some in the previous year at the Botanic Garden 

 of the Agricultural College. And the parents included 

 some of the North Indian canes which, it is interesting 

 to note, although barren in North India, produce fertile 

 pollen at Coimbatore. 



The first piece of work of the cane-breeding station, 

 that of raising cane seedlings, has thus been successfully 

 accomplished. But the bulk of these (30,000 to 40,000 

 in number) are from thick tropical parents, and are less 

 de-sirable for North India on that account. The problem 

 is now reducing itself to a control of the flowering, so 

 that North and South Indian canes can be induced to 

 flower together and crosses obtained between hardy, 

 thin, rapidly maturing canes and rich, juicy ones. Some 

 sixty to seventy varieties of native or desi Indian canes 

 have already been collected at Coimbatore, and series 

 of experiments are being conducted to induce flowering 

 at will, and thus to control parentage on the lines laid 

 down. 



The bulk of the varieties of the canes thus far collected 

 fall into a series of four natural groups with a number 

 of characters in common, and some progress has been 

 made in linking up these groups. There are, of course, 

 also a number of isolated canes whose systematic position 

 is doubtful, but large areas in India are still unexplored 

 by the farm officers, and many varieties have still to be 

 collected. These four main groups may be termed 

 Rheora, Pansahi, Nargori, and Chin, after prominent 

 members, and their relative importance differs in the 

 different parts of the cane-growing tract. In Bihar and 

 adjoining parts of the United Provinces the Rheora 

 group is perhaps most widely grown, but a primitive 

 series (Nargori) comes into evidence in poor, unirrigated 

 land towards the hills. In the Punjab, at the other end 

 of the tract, both of these classes are absent, and perhaps 

 90 per cent, of all the canes grown belong to the Chin 

 group, which, extending into the western parts of the 



