SUGAK, 



137 



11, and 12 have 5-incli joints. Those of No. 1 are 4^ inches, of 

 No. 3, 4 inches, and of Nos. 2 and 7, 3^ inches. No. 6 grows very- 

 straight canes. No. 7 retained a green foliage, and although short in 

 joint, is stated to have a very fine habit. The botanist is careful to 

 say that, having been grown on poor soil, the dimensions given indi- 

 cate, not the ultimate standard these varieties will attain to under 

 more favourable conditions, but only their relative value compared 

 with the common Otaheite, in fields planted alongside of them. He 

 anticipates that a richer and moister soil will improve all. Purple 

 and purple-striped canes are generally admitted to be preferentially 

 adapted, by the hardiness of their habit, to the poorer drier soils ; but 

 it must be remembered, they have a hardness of tissue that gives more 

 trouble in crushing. Nos. 10 and 11, however, are remarkable ex- 

 ceptions, and he thinks that others of the list, when tried in really 

 goodly soil, will improve and assume a freer habit, and gain a larger 

 size than ever shown by our old friend the yellow Otaheite. The 

 paper mentions incidentally a grand purple cane obtained from the 

 islands of the South- Western Pacific, the "Queen" cane, whose joints 

 are 4 or 5 inches in diameter. Experiments in shortness of time to 

 ripen, gallons of liquor per acre, saccharine strength per polariscope, 

 and other particulars are also required, before the planter can know 

 the relative value of the different kinds. There is not the least reason 

 to doubt that with selection and good nursing, very superior and fixed 

 qualities can be obtained in sugar-cane, as freely as they have been in 

 wheat, turnips, beet, fruit, garden flowers, and domestic stock. Tropical 

 staples are ages behind Europe in this respect, and have hence grand 

 possibilities in ovo, but they will not be realised without effort, judg- 

 ment, and perseverance. According to the ' West Indian,' a Barbados 

 paper, a foot in length of sugar-cane grown in that island weighs three- 

 quarters of a pound, and a bunch of canes grown in one hole weighs 

 54 lbs. on an average, which yield 4 gallons of liquor or juice, from 

 which 4 lbs. of muscovado sugar are got. Of the 64 lbs., the juice 

 weighs 50 lbs. An acre of ripe canes, planted 6 by 5 feet, gives 

 1452 bunches, or 5808 gallons of juice, or 5808 lbs. of sugar. At 

 50 lbs. of cane to the hole (or hill), an acre of canes, planted as 

 above, would weigh, when cut, 72,600 lbs., or 36 tons, 90 per cent, 

 being juice. It takes these 36 tons of cane to give 2^- tons of raw 

 sugar, or 360 tons from a 10-acre field to yield 25 tons of sugar. For 

 the first six months the plant requires but little rain to keep it in 

 vigour ; but afterwards it needs a constant supply, and an increase of 

 growth in the last three months of the year. 



The multiplication of all sorts of sugar-cane is usually effected from 

 top cuttings, but this cannot be carried on for an indefinite period 

 from the same original shoots without deterioration; and as seeds 

 hardly ever ripen on the canes, new plants must from time to time be 

 brought from a distance. Thus New Caledonia has latterly supplied 

 its wild-growing splendid varieties for replanting many sugar fields 

 in Mauritius. 



The Bourbon variety is praised as one of the richest in sugar ; the 

 Batavian species (S. violaceum) is content with less fertile soil. 



The Chinese variety (5. sinense, Roxb.) is hardier, and bears drought 



