F 1 1HE absence of any recent English literature dealing with the sugar cane T 



which prompted me to compile " Sugar and the Sugar Cane" can no longer be 



offered as a reason for the production of an extended textbook on cane sugar. 



During the last decade the treatises of Geerligs, and of Jones and Scard r 

 which specialize on cane sugar manufacture, have appeared ; the detailed work of 

 Ware on beet sugar manufacture contains much that is equally applicable to the 

 sister industry ; new editions also have been produced of Spencer's Handbooks, 

 and of Newlands' Text-book. With so detailed a library available reasonable 

 doubt may be felt as to the advisability of offering to the sugar public yet another 

 compilation. 



My experience of the cane sugar industry has been divided between the 

 positions of chemist, of factory manager, of supervising chemist, and of sugar 

 technologist in a large Experiment Station; and as in addition it has been spent 

 in three sugar producing districts of widely variant character, it may possibly 

 have fitted me to take a broad view of the salient points of the industry, and so to 

 select for detailed treatment its more important aspects. Access, also, to a well- 

 stocked library has enabled me to compile and present information not accessible 

 to others less favourably situated. 



The advisability of a chemist devoting considerable space to the botany, agri- 

 culture and pathology of the cane may be questioned. I, however, found it 

 impossible to live on plantations without taking a keen interest in, and attempting 

 to obtain something more than a smattering of, all phases of the production of 

 cane sugar. I feel, then, that some account of these matters may serve to fill a 

 lacuna in English technical literature. 



It was only after mature consideration that I decided to let the chapter on 

 ' Pests and Diseases' appear in its present form; the entomologist and the plant 

 pathologist will be unlikely to refer to it for information. The account there 

 given may serve, however, to stimulate interest in these destructive agencies, and 

 in the means for their control, particularly in that known as the ' natural 

 method,' which has been developed with such striking success in the Hawaiian 

 islands by Koebele, Craw, Perkins, and their associates. 



In selecting from the material at hand for use in this compilation, I have 

 used much that is academic, as opposed to that of practical interest ; although 

 this selection may cause the compilation to appear too 'theoretical,' yet this 

 reasoning has not made me depart from my ideal of inserting what I thought 

 ought to appear, rather than what other people might think ' practical.' 



iii. 



