SUGAR CANE SEEDLINGS. 



The attention of Proprietors and Overseers of Sugar Estates is directed to the subject of seedling' 

 canes. It is probable that we shall be able to obtain improved varieties from seedlings by careful 

 selection of those which give the best results in weight of cane and in juice. 



Mr. Jenman, Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens, Demerara, has given a full account in his 

 last Report of his success in growing seedlings. The following notes, gathered from the Report, may 

 prove of use to those who intend to undertake the improvement of their canes. 



The arrow produces an exceedingly small number of ripe seeds, and these are so minute and so 

 tightlv attached to the chaff that they have escaped notice until lately when the fact that the seed has 

 produced mature sugar canes has been demonstrated by Messrs. Harrison and Bovell at Barbados. 



The seeds are ripe when the arrow begins to break up. In those varieties in which the arrow 

 does not protrude much beyond the sheath, the breaking up takes place immediatsly after they 

 appear ; in other varieties in which the arrow pushes well up out of the sheath, it may last 5 or 6 weeks 

 before ripening. As soon as the arrow begins to break up, it should be gathered, and rubbed so that 

 all the chaff comes off. As it is impossible to separate the seed, the whole must be sown, and that 

 immediately, or the seed will lose its power of germinating. It is necessary to sow in boxes with only 

 a slight sprinkling of soil over the chaff. In fact it is almost better not to cover with any soil, if pro- 

 vision can be made for preventing the chaff blowing away, for the seedlings can push their roots down 

 into the soil, but can not force their tender leaves up through it. The seed boxes should be protected 

 from heavy rains by being placed under cover. In 4 or 5 days the seed germinates, and those that 

 survive grow only 2 or 3 inches for the first 3 months ; then they spring up quickly, and can be 

 planted out in another 2 or 3 months time. 



The following paragraphs by Mr. Jenman which appeared in the "Demerara Argosy" are interesting 

 as being a notice of the first mature seedling cane : — 



" The oldest of our seedling canes, the plant which I have mentioned before in these columns as 

 having been received when only two or three inches high from Mr. Bovell, Dodd's Botanical Station, 

 Barbados, last April twelve-months, and which was planted out when two feet high, four months later, 

 has now grown to a massive plant, and it occurred to me lately that I might have it analyzed, to com- 

 pare the composition now with that at the end of the year when the plant will be mature, and I hope, 

 will also have flowered. The stool contains at present about a dozen canes which are 15 or 16 feet 

 high, and more than as many more younger ones of various heights, coming on, and which will mature 

 before the end of the year. That cut for analysis was the original first shoot, and therefore the oldest 

 on the stool, though it was not the largest. The variety is quite distinct from any other known tome, 

 but its affinity is obviously with the Selangore and Elephant group, between which two canes mentioned, 

 in fact, it is nearly intermediate in general character, partaking rather more perhaps of. the Selangore. 

 This alliance, shown by general external characters, was confirmed by the results of the chemical 

 analysis. It tillers plentifully, and the growth is quite erect. The color of the canes is pruinose while 

 they are young, but this tint disappears with age, and the color passes 'to a white -green, blotched here 

 and there whei'e sun exposed with pink or carmine, and with a soiled suffusion immediately below the 

 nodes. In wet weather the nodes produce a fringe of roots, which, from the pressure of the sheath of 

 the leaf of the next lower node, grow straight down the cane, not extending however in length much 

 beyond the next node These roots are strong and fresh and healthy while enclosed by the leaf sheath, 

 but they gradually dry up and perish in dry weather after the leaf embracing them drops away. The 

 foliage is heavier than in most other varieties, and as a rule drops readily while still green, aided, 

 however, in this by the pressure of the node-roots. The buds are prominent, and disposed to vegetate 

 where borers have injured the cane. Like those of the Elephant, the canes are often hollow between 

 the nodes. The single cane cut for analysis was six inches in girth and 17% feet long over the foliage, 

 about half of which length was matured cane. Cane and foliage together weighed 11% lbs., the cane 

 alone being 8% lbs. of the total weight. The leaves were 6%-7 feet long and four inches wide. Allow- 

 ing for the tapering at the top, each leaf contained 288 square inches of surface=two square feet. 

 There were 16 leaves on the cane when it was cut, six of which, removed from the stalk, weighed lib. 

 There were also 56 nodes from which the leaves had dropped, thus making 72 leaves in all to the cane, 

 weighing 12 lbs., possessing a superficial area of 144 square feet. Most of the other canes on the 

 stool either are, or promise to be larger than the one cut for analysis, but taking the data which the 

 examination of that has yielded, in the autumn, when the stool is mature, the 25 ripe canes which it 

 will then bear will have produced in the course of their growth 1,800 leaves, weighing 300 lbs., cover- 

 ing a superficial area of 3,600 square feet ; and 212% lbs. of grinding canes, or with the foliage and 

 tops on, 287% lbs. Including the weight of the leaves that had dropped the gross yield in weight 

 -would be 520 lbs. An acre planted eight feet by eight feet would contain 681 plants, from which the 

 yield would be on the above basis 17,025 canes, 1,225,800 leaves, weighing 204,300 lbs., covering a 

 superficial area of 2,451,600 square feet, and 144,712% lbs. of grinding cane; or with the foliage and 

 tops on, of 195,787% lbs., or including the foliage dropped, a gross yield of 354,120 lbs. In tons the 

 yield would be : of grinding cane, 64 tons 12 cwt. 8 lbs., and the gross yield in weight, including foliage 

 158 tons 1 cwt. 881bs. This is about double the average yield of ordinary canes, but the weight of 

 grinding cane per acre has been exceeded here by several of the older varieties, such as (taking the 

 names as they are used though some of them are synonyms) the Bourbon, Caledonian Queen, Mani, 

 Lahaina, Cuban, etc. and several others have come nearly up to it. 



The following is Mr. Harrison's very complete and highly interesting analysis of this cane : — 



