SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 7 



A variety of cane very widely grown in .small garden patches, 

 primarily as a chewing cane, generally spoken of in Georgia and 

 northern Florida as Green cane, is apparently identical with the 

 Otaheite of Cuba and the Bourbon of the British West Indies. 

 Because of the soft texture of the pith, this cane is a favorite 

 .among the inhabitants for chewing. Many farmers also plant it 

 for sirup production, as it yields a lighter colored product than the 

 Louisiana Purple or the Bed Ribbon cane. Because of its late ma- 

 turity, its low yield, and its strong susceptibility to disease, however, 

 it is not a good commercial sirup or sugar making cane. It is also 

 a disagreeable cane to handle at harvest time because of the numerous 

 line prickles that cover parts of the leaves near the stem and the leaf 

 sheaths near the midrib of the leaf. 



A variety called Green Ribbon cane in Georgia and Simpson cane 

 in some parts of Florida is practically the same as the last men- 

 tioned except in color, and it has the same advantages and disad- 

 vantages. The two are frequently grown together and one is doubt- 

 less a bud variation of the other. The color of the Green Ribbon 

 cane is green and yellow in longitudinal stripes. 



SEEDLING VARIETIES. 



While bud variation from striped varieties occurs, giving self- 

 colored varieties, and while the opposite phenomena, viz, striped 

 varieties coming by bud variation from self-colored varieties, have 

 also been observed, no great success has attended experimenters in 

 attempts to produce an improved strain of sugar cane by selec- 

 tion through bud variation or plant variation with respect to sugar 

 content and purity of juice. Because of the vegetative way of 

 propagating the cane, the plants of successive seasons are in reality 

 but a continuation of the growth of the plants of preceding seasons. 

 Consequently there is but little chance for variation in its eco- 

 nomic properties. It is otherwise w r ith plants produced from seed, 

 whether the flowers are fertilized by chance in nature or are hand- 

 pollinated under control. In a large number of the enterprising 

 sugar experiment stations, w r ork has been started in producing and 

 testing seedling canes. In most cases the fertilizing of the flowers is 

 left to chance, or, at most, resort is had only to planting in proximity 

 the two varieties from which it is desired to obtain a cross, thereby 

 increasing the chance of getting the desired cross. In a few instances 

 the experimenters have undertaken to cross-fertilize the flowers 

 under control, thereby producing strains with known pedigree. 

 However, as the flowers are almost microscopic in size it is very 

 tedious work, and as a large percentage of the progeny is unpromis- 

 ing or worthless, progress toward better strains by this means is very- 

 slow. 



