SUGAR-CANE CULTURE FOR SIRUP PRODUCTION. 



varieties have the reputation of being more sensitive to lack of 

 fertilizer and to poor soil conditions than the Louisiana Purple 

 and the Ribbon canes. Possibly this accounts for the fact that these 

 varieties have not found much favor among the cane growers of 

 Georgia and Florida, where the soil is of a lighter, more sandy 

 character and the rainfall less abundant than in Louisiana. 



The D 74 cane is a green variety which produces a sirup notably 

 lighter in color than the Louisiana Purple and the Ribbon canes. 

 The erect habit of growth of the plant keeps the ground from 

 being shaded as early as with other varieties, thus necessitating (or 

 permitting) somewhat later cultivation. As the leaves are quite 

 stiff and the leaf sheaths do not so readily drop away from the stalk 

 as it matures, there is slightly more trouble in stripping it at har- 

 vesting time than is experienced with other varieties. Unlike the 

 green chewing cane previously mentioned, the D 74 cane has no 

 prickles on the leaves and leaf sheaths. 



Fig. 4. — Sugar cane of the D 74 variety (at the left) and of, the Louisiana Purple 

 variety (at the right) after a storm (crops equally large). 



Because of the hardness and brittleness of this variety of cane, it 

 is not so easily milled, especially with the small farm outfits that are 

 not provided with crushers. The D 95 cane is of a dark-purple color 

 and can therefore not be expected to yield as light colored a sirup as 

 the T> 74 cane. It is a somewhat softer cane, however, and is therefore 

 more easily milled. Both these Demerara varieties deserve a more 

 thorough trial in sections where they are not now being grown. 



In the fall of 1915 the writer observed in a field of D 95 can on 

 a farm in Alabama, near Muscogee, Fla., some striped stalks. The 

 same phenomenon has since been reported from some other fields of 

 D 95 cane in Louisiana. We thus have another example of a bud 

 variation in a self-colored cane (i. e., with solid color on the stalk) 

 yielding a striped variety. This striped D 95 looks very much like 

 the common Ribbon cane. 



Since 1906 the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station at Audubon 

 Park, New Orleans, has been actively engaged in the production and 

 63779°— Bull. 486—17 2 



