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cultivated from 1887 onwards may be divided into, varieties long 



growing in the Island, imported varieties, and varieties reared from 

 seed, or Seedling varieties. As many as one hundred or more dif- 

 ferent varieties have been reaped in plots, analysed and reported upon 

 in one year, and as is well known, results have shown that they differ 

 greatly in value, some being worthless, others giving high results. 

 The results however, from various causes have differed from year to 

 year, in reeent year several varieties have given better results than 

 Bourbon, but those varieties have not always been the same. Nevertheless 

 there has been sufficient uniformity to shew under the conditions 

 existing at Dodds and the treatment there adopted that there are 

 certain varieties and seedling varieties which in crop, gallons of juice 

 and in richness of juice give, in particular instances, very high results 

 indeed, which give good results year after year exceeding that of the 

 diseased Bourbon, and that with similar conditions and treatment these 

 varieties may be safely adopted to take the place of Bourbon wherever 

 the cane is diseased. 



It is within the memory of every reader that with the spread of 

 disease, a demand arose for varieties, and their cultivation spread 

 gradually to all parts of the island, so that the crop of 1896 may be 

 said to have in some respects been an experimental variety crop, and 

 the crop of 1897 will be still more so, because every one feels — even 

 the most ardent devotee of the Bourbon — that the time has come when 

 the Bourbon must be — at all events temporarily — abandoned. Even 

 though the yield from varieties were unequal to that of Bourbon, yet 

 it would be better to reap a moderate quantity of sugar from a healthy 

 variety, than none at all from diseased Bourbon. Notwithstanding the 

 fact however, that the great majority of estates are now growing trial 

 fields of different varieties, opinion is by no means unanimous as to the 

 result, in fact there can be no doubt that practical results have differed 

 even with the same varieties ; and certain causes may be suggested to 

 account for these differences. 



In the first place, in the rush for varieties, the young plants have 

 necessarily been obtained from every conceivable source, and we all 

 know that in the case of — say the Bourbon variety or any other — 

 obtained from different places where they have been cultivated under 

 different conditions, do not give the same quality or quantity of 

 growth. Consequently we have good and bad cases of [every variety, 

 and opinions of planters will vary according to their good or bad 

 fortune in this respect. 



There has been a great deal of necessary hap-hazard in the choice of 

 plants, and this alone would account for great difference in results. 



Planters recognised that they must try " varieties" and in the rush, 

 so long as it was a " variety" that they got, it had to be enough. 

 What is now required is a weeding out of varieties, until none but 

 good ones are cultivated. Let planters carefully ascertain the results 

 that different varities give in their own district and in soils similar to 

 their own, let them ascertain how they were treated, and let them 

 obtain plants from the best varieties so ascertained from estates where 

 they grow to the best advantage and in the healthiest manner. 



Another cause for diversity of results lies in the fact that while some 

 varieties give good results in the hilly districts and in red soils, they 



