LUTHER BURBANK 



ued unchanged as to its essential characteristics, 

 and there was no apparent opportunity for any 

 modification, except such minor ones as might 

 result from increased or diminished nutrition due 

 to the precise character of the soil and climate. 



But the chance finding of the seedlings put the 

 plant on a new basis, and gave the planters new 

 varieties that enabled them to improve the cane, 

 and bring it more in line of competition with the 

 rival sugar-producer that had only recently come 

 into notice, namely the sugar-beet. 



At the time when the custom of propagating 

 cane by cuttings was established this plant stood in 

 a class quite by itself as a sugar-producer. 



But within the past fifty years the merits of the 

 sugar-beet have come to be understood. The pos- 

 sibility of developing a beet with a high sugar 

 content has been established, and the beet sugar 

 industry has risen to such proportions that it more 

 than rivals the cane industry. 



Stimulated by this unexpected competition, 

 which threatened to annihilate the cane sugar 

 industry, somewhat as the work of the synthetic 

 chemist has practically annihilated indigo growing 

 and madder growing, the planters have in recent 

 years given serious attention to the question of the 

 possible improvement of the sugar-producing 

 qualities of the cane. 



[142] 



