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Kew Gardens to the Colonial Office. 



Royal Gardens, Kew, 9th August, 1889. 



Sir, 



With reference to your letter of the 8th December, 1885, and subsequent correspondence on the 

 subiect of the improvement of the sugar-cane in the West India Colonies, 1 am desired by Mr. Thiselton 

 Dyer to forward for the information of the Secretary of State, some of the results which have been 

 lately obtained in furtherance of this object. 



2. It will be within your recollection thut in my letter of the 12th May, 188G, extracts from which 

 were circulated by the Colonial Office for the information of sugar-producing Colonies, it was sug- 

 gested that the attention of Botanists and Sugar Planters in such Colonics should be directed to any 

 variations appearing accidentally in the cane fields and that canes exhibiting such variations should be 

 carefully cultivated with the view of testing their value. 



3. 'The circulation of these and other suggestions emanating from Kew has apparently been the 

 means of directing attention to the possibility of securing new varieties of sugar-canes and of generally 

 improving their yield in crystallisable sugar. Indeed the correspondence received at this Estab- 

 lishment has shown that the subject has received attention in such widely placed Colonies as Fiji, 

 Queensland ai d Mauritius, as well as in the West India Islands and British Guiana. 



4. At Barbados a series of very interesting investigations has been carried on for the last four 

 years at the Botanical Station of the Colony under the direction of Professor Harrison and Mr. Bovell. 

 These investigations, supported by the intelligent action of the local Government, were in the first 

 instance confined to trials of various Sugar Canes introduced to the West Indies by the Botanical Estab- 

 lishments of Jamaica, Trinidad and British Guiana, and to the yield of these as compared with the 

 yield of canes already known in the island. The experiments were also directed to test, in an exhaus- 

 tive manner, the relative value of various manures and to determine under what conditions such manures 

 were calculated to yield the best results. 



5. A summary of the conclusions arrived at in these investigations has been regularly published 

 by order of the House of Assembly of Barbados, and it is needless to refer to them here in detail. 



6. These investigations, however, possess a special interest because in connection with them a fact 

 has been elicited which it is hoped will have an important bearing upon the ultimate improvement of 

 the sugar cane. It has been shown with some probability by Messrs. Harrison and Bovell, that under 

 certain circumstances it is possible to raise sugar cane from seed — an occurrence, owing to its extreme 

 rareness, about which there has been so much doubt that it has been thought impossible 



7. The first announcement respecting the probability of sugar canes having been raisel from seed 

 at the Barbados Botanical Station was made in the Kew Bulletin for December last. Since that time 

 further information has been received which appears to show, in a perfectly natural and circumstantial 

 manner, that certain varieties of sugar canes still retain the power of producing mature seed. From 

 a botauical point of view this is sufficiently interesting to require more than a passing notice. From 

 the point of view of the sugar planter it is a fact which, if established and intelligently followed up, is 

 capable of effecting as much improvement in the sugar caue and in its yield in sugar as has been effected 

 of late years in the beet. For the first time it has been shown that it may be possible to pursue such 

 a system of selection by seminal reproduction in the case of the sugar cane as to greatly increase its 

 value as an industrial plant. 



8. The economic bearing of the discovery of seedling sugar canes at Barbados will, however, 

 depend very much upon the means taken to utilise it to the best advantage. From the experience 

 gained in the improvement of other cultivated plants by means of seminal reproduction, this fact pro- 

 perly utilized cannot fail to yield results of an important character. 



9. At present Mr. Thiselton Dyer is of opinion that Messrs. Harrison and Bovell should be encou- 

 raged to devote special attention to the subject of seedling sugar canes, especially in testing the richness 

 in sugar of the various seedling canes already established by them. It is hoped that the Government 

 of Barbados, to whom great credit is due for the results already obtained, will in view of the importance 

 of the subject, be digposed to support these investigations by such funds as are necessary for the pur- 

 pose in view. 



10. Now that the fact that certain varieties of sugar canes may produce mature seed appears to be 

 available for their improvement, it is desirable to carry out a series of detailed and systematic experi- 

 ments to determine how far it is possible to cross one variety with another and produce a progeny pos- 

 sessing certain well marked and highly valued characteristics. This is a natural development of the 

 present circumstances, and the results will entirely depend upon the skill and judgment brought to 

 Dear upon them. 



11. To assist in this work it may be found desirable that experiments of the character suggested in 

 the last paragraph be also carried on at the Botanical Establishments at Jamaica, Trinidid and British 

 Guiana. With this view and the concurrence of the Government of Barbados, a few of the seedling 

 canes, and if possible, some of the seed might be distributed to these Establishments for the joint observa- 

 tion and investigation of the Botanical and Analytical Officers connected with these Colonies. 



12. As considerable interest is taken in this matter outside the West Indies, Mr. Thiselton Dyer 

 will be glad to receive a few seedling canes for experimental cultivation at Kew. Further it is impor- 

 tant from a scientific point of view to obtain specimens of what is known to be mature seed of the 

 sugar cane and that such specimens be placed for observation and safe-keeping in the Herbarium attached 

 to this Establishment. 



I am, &c, 



(Signed) D. Morris. 



Edward Wingfield, Esq., C.B., Colonial Office. 



