184 



i;ory of varieties in this island, and to point out the general conclusions 

 above referred to. 



Some six years ago, excepting one or two estates, the entire island, 

 or all that was cultivable, was practically covered with the Bourbon 

 cane, rich in juice and saccharine content, a cane that had yielded as 

 much as four tons to the acre, not in virgin, but in long cultivated, 

 fields. In 1890 the 'large crop' was reaped and in the same year from. 

 April onwards occurred a rather severe drought, followed in 1891 bv a 

 milder and shorter one. It was in the beginning of 1891 that the >hot 

 borer made its appearance in the Bourbon cane, throughout the West 

 Indian Islands ; not for the first time as several scientists can testify, but 

 the fact was remarkable on account of the large quantity, and the 

 damage done, and led to a careful study of the insect and its habits, 

 with the result that it was concluded that the Shot Borer only attacked 

 canes previously diseased from some other cause. Attention was ac- 

 cordingly directed to that other cause which was in 1892 and 1893 

 shewn to be the well known rind fungus (Trichosphaeria sacchari) ; 

 while in the same years in the parish of St. John what is now known 

 as the root form of the disease rapidly developed until it assumed 

 alarming proportions and in the case of one or two estates practically an- 

 nihilated the entire c- op. The Shot Borer and rind fungus were first 

 noticed in their epidemic and parasitical form in S. Philip, the "root 

 fungus" in 8. John ; but from 1892, onwards the rind fungus has 

 spread until there is no part of the island that has not suffered from it. 

 The Root fungus has however until quite recently, for the most part, 

 been confined to S. John and the neighbouring red soil districts. 



The bearing of this upon the question of cane varieties is of course, 

 well known, for in 1891 it was found that many varieties were not 

 attacked by Shot Borer, and when the real evil was shewn to be fungus, 

 then it was similarly found that these same varieties were not attacked 

 by the fungus; consequently those planters who were amongst the 

 earlier ones to suffer loss due to fungus, eagerly directed attention to 

 varieties and seedling varieties as the means by which they were to 

 combat the disease. So that whereas cane varieties up to 189^> were 

 mostly confined to Dodds and regarded by Planters in this Island as 

 more or less of a scientific curiosity, from 1891 onwards they began to 

 enjoy a practical value. 



It must not be supposed that varieties other than Bourbon were 

 unknown outside Dodds, for some of the Dodds varieties were obtained 

 in tne island, as specimens of canes that had been long cultivated 

 there ; still for the most part they had been cultivated recently only by 

 accident, which could be seen by a scattered Ribbon, or Transparent 

 cane occurring here and there in Bourbon fields. The fact is that the 

 Bourbon cane was the result of careful trial and careful selection in the 

 earlier days of cane cultivation in Barbados, and it is no wonder there- 

 fore, after all the care and trouble and time expended in its selection 

 that it should be be so hard to beat, and after all the centuries of 

 agricultural experience acquired by the cultivation and observation of 

 this cane, that its habits and requirements shou d be very much better 

 known than that of the varieties. We have little or no. evidence of 

 what varieties were rejected in those old days, and consequently we have 

 to start over again to get experience with them. The varieties at DoJds 



