Edible Products. 



308 



[October, 1910. 



knowledge as a basis for tbe production 

 of resistant varieties. The attempts 

 already made seem to show conclusively 

 that this is practical. One example 

 must suffice. From a cross between 

 Square Head's Master and a resistant 

 variety found in Russian Ghirka wheat 

 two very promising wheats, one immune 

 and one susceptible, were isolated and 

 grown on for comparison. In 1909, a 

 moderately bad rust year, three-acre 

 plots of these varieties were grown 

 alongside one-another. The susceptible 

 variety gave one of the most striking 

 plots of wheat on the experimental farm ; 

 the immune variety also grew into a 

 good crop, though farmers visiting the 

 station almost invariably preferred the 

 former, in spite of its rustiness. At 

 threshing time, liowever, the effects of 

 the attack became obvious, as tbe sus- 

 ceptible variety only yielded forty-two 

 bushels per acre from the immune acre, 

 as compared with fifty-four bushels per 

 acre from the immune variety. The 

 grain of the former was also so shrivelled 

 that it was only fit for chicken food, 

 whilst from the latter less than a half 

 per cent, could be screened when dress- 

 ing it for seed. 



If the attacks of yellow rust can be 

 controlled in this manner it is reason- 

 able to suppose that the still more 

 serious black rust (Puccinia graminis) 

 can also be brought under control. At 

 the present time the most that can be 

 said is that some evidence pointing in 

 tbis direction has been obtained. The 

 problem will, however, have to be solved 

 elsewhere, for even with plantations of 

 the alternative host, the Barberry, in 

 the vicinity of the trial plots, we cannot 

 count on a yearly epidemic of this rust 

 to test the varieties thoroughly. 



SUGAR IN THE WEST INDIES AND 

 IN JAVA. 



(Prom the Louisiana Planter and Sugar 

 Manufacturer,Vo\.XLV.,No.Q, Aug., 1910.) 



It is painful to notice the continued 

 want of advauce in the general methods 

 of sugar making in our West Indies. It 

 is true that a good many improvements 

 have been introduced, that better varie- 

 ties of cane are being selected, that a 

 few modern central factories have been 

 erected, and that there is some improve- 

 ment in the processes of manuring and 

 so on. Nevertheless, the contrast with 

 progressive islands like Java is of the 

 most striking character and very mor- 

 tifying to any one interested in the pro- 

 gress of our own colonies. Ihe Journal 

 ties Fabricanls de Sucre of April 6, has 



an interesting article taken from a com- 

 munication by Mr. W. D. Dickhoff in a 

 Dutch technical paper on tbe subject of 

 the sugar industry in that island. 



The first facts to notice are that where- 

 as there were in 1894, 195 sugar factories 

 in Java, they had fallen in 1908 to 178 

 factories. The production of sugar in 

 the meantime had more than doubled. 

 The diminution in the number of the 

 factories is one of the consequences of 

 the concentration of work, which goes 

 on in all improving countries, because 

 larger factories tend to lower the cost 

 of manufacture and output, while the 

 employment of powerful machinery, and 

 the cane being passed through on a large 

 scale, tend to economy. The acreage 

 under cane has, of course, largely in- 

 creased leadiug to the greater yield of 

 sugar. In 1894 there were 75,011 

 hectares (2 1-2 acres) under the crop 

 which had risen in 1908, to 117,579 ; in 

 consequence the number of hectares 

 which fed a factory, which was 385 

 hectares in 1904, rose to 660 hectares in 

 1908. The cane gathered in metric tons 

 was in 1904, 5,108,228 tons, and in 1908, 

 12,416,576 tons, an increase of 143*1 per 

 cent. The yield of cane per hectare has 

 increased enormously, having risen from 

 68,054 kg. per hectare in 1894 to 105-68 kg. 

 in 1908. In Eastern, Central and Western 

 Java the increase has been respectively, 

 47'4, 80, 46-7, and 55 per cent, on the 

 average. The yield in canes iu pro- 

 portion to the area has thus increased 

 to a very remarkable degree in the last 

 15 years, This is due to intensive culti- 

 vation, to rational manuring, and to 

 more judicious choice of slips ; namely 

 the plantation of varieties proof against 

 the Sereh disease, and the planting of 

 sorts of most yield, together with the 

 planting of sorts most appropriate to 

 the particular soil. The progress in the 

 yield is most marked in the last seven 

 years, during which the selection of 

 appropriate varieties has had the effect 

 of counteracting atmospheric influences. 

 Owing to these causes the yield of cane 

 per hectare, which was 68,054 kilos iu 

 1894 rose in 1908 to 105,558 kilos, The pro- 

 portion of sugar extracted from the cane 

 strangely enough, has been almost 

 stationary, and was much the same 

 throughout the years from 1894 to 1908, 

 being in fact somewhat less in the last 

 year than iu the first. It follows from 

 this that the varieties now cultivated 

 although they give more weight than 

 those grown 15 years back. It may even 

 be said that they are not so rich, for. 

 owing to the improved methods of 

 manufacture, the sugar in the cane is 

 now extracted more completely than 



