Edible Products. 



324 



[April, 1912. 



from 15 to 17 per cent, of sugar, which is 

 certainly not higher than that of Indian 

 cane. These figures will appear low to 

 some readers. It is quite true that some 

 cane grown in Java is richer than this, 

 and runs up to as much as 20 per cent. ; 

 but this is likewise the case in India. 

 The defects of the Indian crop are (i) 

 small weight of cane per acre, and (ii) a 

 high proportion of fibre in the cane, 

 which causes, especially in single crush- 

 ing a low yield of juice. 



The production of more cane per acre 

 and of cane yielding higb proportion of 

 juice, containing high proportions of 

 sugar, are subjects well understood, but 

 the solution of the problem in India is 

 not by any means a simple one. The 

 United Provinces include more than 

 half the sugarcane area, and the visitor 

 from other cane-growing countries is at 

 once struck by the small thin canes 

 which are nearly universally grown. 

 Why grow such cane, a cane indeed 

 which contains a high proportion of fibre 

 and consequently yields less juice to the 

 mill ? As a matter of fact, the general 

 growth of these thin canes is not due 

 to mere ignorance on the part of the 

 cultivators. Thick canes of better 

 quality are grown in small quantity 

 very widely throughout the Province 

 and are called Poundas, which are, how- 

 ever, generally sold for chewing, and 

 only in the Meerut Division is a moder- 

 ately thick cane crushed for sugar 

 manufacture. Why is this the practice ? 

 One reason given is that the Poundas 

 are not "sweet," that is, the juice is 

 said to contain a low proportion of cane 

 sugar. Such evidence as we have does 

 not support this argument. Even if 

 the Vkhs are somewhat sweeter, they 

 contain less juice, Assuming for ex- 

 ample that the juice of the Ukhs con- 

 tains on the whole 17 per cent, sugar, 

 whilst Poundas contains 15 per cent., 

 then since the Ukhs yield about 55 per 

 cent, juice and the Poundas 70 per 

 cent, juice at the mill, 100 pounds of 

 Ukh cane will yield 17 x 55 = 9*35 pounds 

 of sugar at the mill, whilst 100 pounds 

 of Pounda will yield 15 x 7 = 10"5 pounds 

 of sugar. Other reasons are that the 



Poundas are more liable to disease and 

 are more freely attacked by jackal and 

 pig. Also, they have not generally 

 tillered so well in Behar as they do in 

 Southern India. 



A first consideration towards the 

 improvement of cane as a sugar producer 

 is the cultivatiot of a cane which will 

 grow well in the particular locality. 

 Nothing has been more striking when 

 attempting to improve the yield of cane 

 than the sensitiveness of newly-intro- 

 duced canes to novel environment. This 

 is, of course, well known, but perhaps 

 generally realised. For example, two 

 varieties of cane were obtained from 

 Mauritius in 1894 for growth at Poona. 

 In respect of weight of cane they did 

 well, but instead of yielding juice con- 

 taining 18 per cent, sugar as had been 

 expected, they only contained some 10 

 to 12 per cent. They only slowly im- 

 proved. Similarly canes brought from 

 Poona, from Burdwan and from 

 Saharanpur to Cawnpore in 1897 grew 

 very defectively. At Pusa, too, many 

 of the varieties which have been obtain- 

 ed from other parts of India have failed 

 to do well. At the same time, and con- 

 versely, some have done well, and have 

 yielded good crops of sound and rich 

 cane, though subject to disease in certain 

 years. Curiously, too, among those 

 that grew well at Pusa were the two 

 Mauritius canes from Poona which did 

 so badly there at first. These yielded 

 juice containing 18 to 20 per cent, of 

 sugar. 



Thus it follows that when attempting 

 to improve the cane of a district, a most 

 labourious piece of work is involved, 

 extending as it must do over a number 

 of years, in order to ascertain what 

 varieties from other parts may do better 

 than the local one. Again, what is 

 ascertained to be the best cane at one 

 Experiment Station is not necessarily 

 applicable to a whole Province. Owing 

 to differences of soil and climate each 

 sugar-growing Province in India would 

 require several sugar-cane stations in 

 order to make the work at all com- 

 plete. And the work cannot be much 

 abbreviated, excepting that in some 



