IMPROVEMENT OF THE SUGAR CANE. 109 
judging only from the published reports, the present in- 
vestigators do not seem to have been successful in raising 
seedling varieties of exceptional saccharine strength. At 
any rate attention is not drawn to success in the reports, 
and from close examination of the tables I can find but 
little indication ofit. Possibly the prevalence of diseases 
in the canes there, has affeéted the results prejudicially. 
In this colony we have succeeded in raising several 
varieties having high saccharine contents, the most 
marked of which are Nos. 95, 74, 61 and 102, which 
have contained respeétively during four crops 16'5, 
16°2, 15°5 and 15°1 per cent. of sucrose. During the 
same period the Bourbon canes on the same land 
averaged 13°3 per cent. These varieties are all canes 
of a slighter build than the Bourbon but give more 
canes to the stool and, in addition, ratoon better. We 
have some varieties No. 78, 10g, 145, 115 and 130, which 
are of about the same or are a little higher in saccharine 
strength than the Bourbon and which contained respec- 
tively 14.3, 14°5, 14°8, 13-8 and 14°2 per cent. of sucrose, 
and have given much higher yields of canes per acre. 
Also, we have raised several varieties yielding indi- 
vidual canes of great size, far in excess of that ofany known 
kind, but, unfortunately, these have all been ot low saccha- 
rine strength. We have not succeeded in obtaining, as 
yet, large sized canes of exceptionally high saccharine 
strength, but hope to do soin the future. That the high 
saccharine strength of some of these new varieties is a 
constant property is shown by the faét that the No. 95 
cane grown in Louisiana had the same relatively high 
sugar contents as it had shewn in this colony. 
The yield of the Bourbon at the Botanic Gardens was, 
