87 
possess properties at all superior to those already under cultivation. 
The opinion has always been held at Kew that in the long run the ne 
results may be obtained by ate: propagation from selected can 
The most ready means, and the one hee universally adopted, for 
propagating the sugar-cane is Pr cuttings. Sometimes the whole cane 
is planted, sometimes only short hem or cuttings near the top, each 
ng a few buds. this way the same identical v iety of cane is 
prolifieness, and capable at the same time of yielding a larger per-centage 
of sugar. Such were canes are the result of what is called bud 
variation ; and if these are carefully selected, and the process continually 
repeated, a ias will be eventually established superior-to any canes 
of the sort from which it was originally n" eges method of pro- 
cedure was suggested from Kew about seven years ago, but it is only 
within the last afi years that it has wet panei tested under 
scientific supervisio 
A letter from Mew; addressed to the Colonial Office, dated May 12th, 
1886, was summarised by it as follows :— Mr. Thiselton-Dyer deems it 
* advisable to direct the attention, not only of professed botanists, but 
* also of planters, to the fact that new varieties (or sports) in sugar-canes 
“ are to be sought in bud variation appewring accidentally in the cane 
* fields, and that when such bud varieties are noticed, stock nts 
* should be raised and carefully experimented upon until their value is 
* fully known." This paragraph was communicated by the Secretary 
= State for the Colonies to the Governments of West India Islands and 
other Colonies where sugar.growing is a uti industry, and it was 
publishe d locally in the Government Gazettes. It was not intended to 
eonfine attention merely to canes growing icantly at Botanical 
gardens. The idea was to stimulate i inquiry and observation throughout 
the cane fields of the whole of our tropical possessions. In the con- 
cluding paragraph of the letter spin caer peste m was pointed out :— 
* Fur this purpose an area of one hundred acres is hardly more valuable 
* than one acre. It requires observation carr ied on over thousands of 
* acres of cane fields, vore with the intelligent co-operation of all 
“ interested in the subjec 
It is not necessary to m on the theoretical grounds for under- 
taking an enterprise of this kind. The facts already obtained in a series 
of experiments carried on at Calumet Plantation, Louisiana, have 
practically established the possibility of selecting canes in the field re- 
markable for size, prolificness, early nin s high saccharine quality, 
and of j ession of canes possessing 
similar qualities. The peculiarity of t experiments is that the 
selection has been based upon and fri cw by chemical — If, xc 
adopting this method, ru average quality of the canes over 
were uniformly r: raised, i is shown by the Louisiana ‘experiments that for 
a crop of, say, 25,000 pa ons there would be added to it 180,000 pounds of 
su is, however, is the result of one year's selection only. But in 
addition to Co increased yield in sugar there is still another possible 
gain in the increased purity of the sugar. This is a more difficult matter 
to estimate, ‘bat it is a factor which adds to the potential value of the 
experiment, 
By the pee of Mr. Wibray J. Thompson, of Calumet Plantation, 
Patterson, La., we are p in possession of the results of the very 
Tommin atyai carried on by him, with the aid of Mr. Hubert 
son, who undertook the idilie "work, during the seasons of 1890, 
