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shine and kept constantly moist, as the plants require a rich 

 soil, much water, and much sunshine. After a few weeks, 

 when they are I to ij feet high they are brought over into 

 the field and treated just as ordinary sugar-cane. 



''According to Benecke's and Soltwedel's researches 

 sugar-cane seed loses its germinating power within 6 weeks. 

 Therefore everything has to be prepared beforehand in order 

 to allow the sowing to be started immediately after the arrival 

 of the seeds. 



"It ought to be well understood that the only purpose 

 of sugar-cane sowing is the raising of a new variety with 

 possibly better qualities than the ordinary existing ones and 

 not the change of the old way of planting with tops into 

 planting from seed. 



''From the thousands of young plants raised in the horti- 

 culturists' nurseries, only those are picked, which look pro- 

 mising ; the others are destroyed. The picked plants are 

 tested and if some of them prove to be of superior quality 

 they are propagated in the usual way by cuttings. 



'* The few planters in Java, who have their estates partly 

 or entirely under seedling canes, do not sow their estate, but 

 plant it with cuttings from cane?, the ancestors of which have 

 been raised from seed." 



607. Cuttings. Canes that are chosen for seed, that is for 

 cuttings, should be 'topped' when they are mature ; in other 

 words, the topmost bud should be cut away, that the nourish- 

 ment may flow to the lateral buds and develope them to a 

 sprouting condition. The sprouting is helped in this country by 

 keeping the cuttings in a cool pit, by putting a layer of damp 

 straw and ashes at the bottom of the pit and then arranging on 

 this successive layers of cuttings and wet straw and ashes until 

 the pit is filled, when over the last layer of ash'es and straw, 

 earth is put on, and the whole allowed to remain for a week. 

 After this, the cuttings will be found to have sprouted and 

 rootlets come out of the knots. The cuttings though ready 



