183 



Toots are exposed, the older worn-out rootlets may be cut away and the 

 roots of other plants removed. Cattle should on no account be allowed 

 in the plantation, as it is most hurtful to the tree to have the leaves 

 bitten, and if the unfolded leaf is injured the tree dies. 



Yield. — A tree in good condition yields from fifty to one hundred nuts 

 every year, but good climate, soil, and cultivation may bring the yield 

 up to as many as 200 nuts. 



IMPROVEMENT OF SUGAR CANE BY CHEMICAL 

 SELECTION OF SEED CANES. 



Mr. Wibray J. Thompson, Calumet Plantation, Patterson, La., 

 has sent a pamphlet in which is detailed a series of experiments carried 

 on by Mr. Hubert Edson, the resident chemist, with the object of dis- 

 covering whether it is possible to increase the output of sugar by 

 means of a chemical selection of the canes used for planting. 



A good deal has been said lately about the importance of careful 

 selection in connection with the question of liability to disease, but these 

 experiments are of special importance in the present struggle against 

 Beet Sugar, for it is shown as the result of one year's selection only 

 that for a crop of, say, 25,000 tons there would be added to it 180,000 

 pounds of sugar. 



' Seed' Selection of Sugar-cane. 

 "During the autumn of 1890, after grinding was well under way, a 

 series of single stalk analyses were made in the laboratory for the 

 purpose of testing whether sugar canes would transmit to their offspring 

 the relative higher or lower sucrose content which they themselves 

 possess. By repeated experiments a transverse section of the cane was 

 found that represented very accurately the quality of the whole cane, 

 this part was cut out, analysis made of its juice, and the remainder of 

 the cane saved for seed. This section was the third one from the 

 bottom when the canes were cat into four pieces of equal length. 

 Below is given a table of analyses made to test the matter : — 



Longitudinal Halves of Samples. 



Solids. 



Sucrose. 



Purity. 



Solids. 



Sucrose. 



Purity. 



U.7 



11.9 



80.9 



15.4 



12.8 



83.6 



15.1 



12.3 



81.4 



15.2 



12.8 



80.9 



16.1 



13.8 



85.7 



16.1 



13.9 



85.3 



16.1 



13.6 



83.9 



16.5 



13.8 



83.6 



17.1 



15.4 



90.1 



17.1 



15.3 



89.4 



18.3 



16.5 



90.2 



18.2 



16.4 



90.1 



16.4 



13.3 



81.1 



16.4 



13.7 



83.5 



16.1 



13.3 



82.6 



16.1 



13.5 



83.8 



16.2 



13.8 



85.2 



16.4 



14.0 



85.4 



Third Quarter from Bottom of 

 opposite Halves of Samples. 



" I have since thought that for different years the section which 



