CANE SUGAR. 



No record of the weight of the crop is given. 



Eckart 8 found very different results in Hawaii. In a very complete series 

 of tests carried on at the Experiment Station there, the plots that were not 

 trashed gave uniformly a higher yield of cane and a sweeter and purer juice. 



The Disposal of Trash. As an average of the data due to Max- 

 well, and already quoted, each ton of cane stalks produces, in the leaves and 

 waste matter, 1*95 Ibs. of nitrogen; let this nitrogen he valued at 7'5 pence 

 per pound, so that its value is then per ton of cane stalks 14' 6 pence. A crop 

 of 40 tons of cane will then contain in its waste matter nitrogen to the value 

 of 2 8s. 8d. When the trash is, as is often the case, burned off, this 

 relatively enormous quantity of nitrogen is lost. To agriculturists accustomed 



FIG. 42. 



only to European farming practice this custom is barely creditable. It is 

 defended on the following grounds : 



1. The cost of cane cutting is decreased if the fields are fired immediately 

 before harvest. In Demerara, where labour is very cheap, the saving is from 

 five to six shillings per acre. 



2. The expense of burying the trash and of removing it from the cane 

 rows is saved. 



3. The combustion of the trash also destroys fungus spores and noxious 

 insects. According to Dr. Perkins, however, in Hawaii the burning destroys 

 the parasites of the leaf hopper, the latter escaping by flight. 



4. Fields in which the trash has been burnt off allow the ratoons to 

 ' spring' to better advantage ; this effect is probably due to the setting free of 

 the ash constituents of the trash. 



122 



