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made of practical value to a large cane grower. The results obtained 

 have been with small experiment plats. How can such work be done 

 for hundreds of acres ? This must be the true test of the utility of the 

 results, for could not the large field profit by them they might as well 

 have never been made. 



" There are two possible ways, it seems to me at present, that the 

 knowledge acquired by these experiments can be put to practical use. 

 The first of these is by systematically sampling the cane growing on 

 different sections of the plantation, and planting the richest for the 

 ensuing crop. In this case, however, the conditions giving the richness 

 are not perfectly known ; the soil, fertilizer applied, better drainage or 

 cultivation may, one or all, have had an effect in giving the result, 

 instead of an inherent quality in the cane itself, and that which is in 

 reality poorer might be selected in one year's work as the better. In a 

 number of years, though, it is more than probable that a selection of 

 this kind would be of material benefit. The return would, in any case, 

 be slower than the method I will now call attention to. 



" A chemist can take ordinary unskilled white labourers and teach 

 them to make the necessary Brix readings in a very short time, and 

 by single stalk work I estimate, from the work done here, that in a 

 month at least three acres could be planted with a high quality of seed, 

 using only a single hand-mill to extract the juice. This work done 

 during grinding would entail no loss, as all juice extracted and canes 

 not selected could be used in the factory. These three acres should 

 produce the next year at the rate of twenty tons per acre, or a total of 

 sixty tons. At the end of one year, then, sixty tons of a high grade seed 

 would be on hand. This, planting at the rate of four tons to the acre, 

 would seed 15 acres and, with the three acres of stubble, would, at the 

 end of two years, give 18 acres of pure-bred seed. The 15 acres of plant 

 cane would give 300 tons, at the rate of 20 tons per acre, and the three 

 acres of stubble, at 16 tons per acre, would give 48 tons, a total of 348 

 tons, which is enough to have at the end of the third year, with the 15 

 acres of stubble, 92 acres of pure-bred seed. This does not take into 

 account the additional selections that could be made each year and which 

 by three years would at the same rate as above give twenty-one addi- 

 tional acres. Oue hundred and thirteen acres would, in round numbers, 

 plant 550 acres, and this is nearly as much as our largest plantations 

 plant in one year. By the end of another year, or the fifth crop har- 

 vested since the selection was begun, there would be nothing but im- 

 proved cane on the place. This would be accomplished, too, by using 

 only the additional labour of perhaps four men during the grinding 

 season. 



" Of course continued selections, that is, selections from selections, 

 could be going on in small plats all the time and as these became of 

 sufficient value could be transferred to the field in the same manner as 

 the other. 



" Feeling thus so thoroughly assured that the selection of 1 high sucrose' 

 canes will give a plant which is also of a superior quality, it might be 

 well to speculate as to how far this improvement can be carried. Is it 

 to be stopped at the end of three or four years, or is it to be continued 

 indefinitely ? If for the shorter period how much of an improvement 

 can we expect ? 



