Edible Products. 



512 



[December, 1909. 



March, though December and January- 

 are the best months, so that the young 

 plants may be well started and will not 

 suffer so much during the cool season. 

 The plants should be very carefully 

 raised with as large balls of earth as 

 possible. If they are transported any 

 great distance, it will be prudent and 

 even necessary to cover the balls with 

 banana leaves or green herbs to prevent 

 breaking. On the contrary, if they are 

 set out near the nursery it tvill suffice to 

 place them carefully side by side in a 

 case in which they can be carried to the 

 location desired, and set in place at once 

 by the plantation labourers. 



It is not wise to take up a large number 

 of nursery plants in advance, and those 

 that are taken up should be protected 

 from strong sunshine. If the planter is 

 compelled to set out his trees during dry 

 and sunny weather the process should 

 be discontinued during the heat of the 

 day. Neither in Dutch Guiana nor in 

 Trinidad do they strip the leaves from 

 the plants. But if the weather is at all 

 dry they cut off parts of the leaves in 

 order to diminish evapoartion. 



In certain mountainous plantations in 

 Trinidad I have seen the taproot cut off 

 with a knife where it projected beyond 

 the ball ; and in other plantations 

 situated on the lowlands, on the contrary 

 the taproot is preserved in its entirety 

 and placed carefully in the whole that is 

 made especially deep for this purpose. 

 When I asked the manager of the plant- 

 ation the reason for this, he said that in 

 the Arinao districts the cacaos were very 

 much exposed to the winds, and the 

 plants whose tap roots had been broken 

 off at the time of planting offered less 

 resistance to the wind than those 

 which the taproots had been carefully 

 preserved. 



In setting out, the plants should be 

 placed deep enough so that the top of 

 the ball will be covered with soil to a 

 depth of 3 or 4 centimeters. If a dry 

 period follows the setting out it will be 

 necessary to irrigate the plants whose 

 balls have been broken. This precaution 

 should not be neglected if regularity of 

 the plantation is to be maintained from 

 the outset. I know that planters in the 

 great cacao-growing regions will smile if 

 they read this, but I am writing it for the 

 benefit of the planters in Madagascar, 

 where the climate is such as to make 

 necessary precautions that would be 

 superfluous elsewhere. 



There is one method of preparing the 

 plants that I have not mentioned, that 

 which consists in sowing the seeds in 

 baskets, pots, or better in bamboos of a 

 certain diameter, It is everywhere 



employed in Government establishments 

 whose mission it is to furnish plants to 

 individuals. The method must have its 

 advantages since it is used, but it has 

 also numerous disadvantages, which 

 would prevent its regular use by those 

 who plant upon a large scale. 



CANE SEEDLINGS IN JAVA. 



By J. D. Kobus, 



(Prom the Louisiana Planter and 

 Sugar Manufacturer, Vol. XLII., No. 18, 

 September 18, 1909,) 



It is just twenty-five yeai^s since Dr. P. 

 Soltwedel began his experiments in the 

 propagation of sugar cane and other 

 species of Saccharum from seed. 



Though he was not at once so fortun- 

 ate as to raise young sugar plants, yet 

 by 1885 he got some seedlings from 

 Saccharum spontaneum, and the next 

 year from another Saccharum species 

 that grows wild in Java and was named 

 after him Saccharum Solttcedeli. In 

 1886 he found also that the pollen of the 

 Louzier cane, imported by him from 

 Mauritius, would germinate, and in 1887 

 he succeeded in getting seedlings from 

 several varieties. Most of them, how- 

 ever, died when young. Only those of a 

 yellow cane, known as Havaii. developed 

 into vigorous cane stools, very much 

 resembling the parent plants- 



At that time Soltwedel was unaware 

 that his discovery was not new, and 

 that already as far back as 1860 and 

 1861 canes grown from seed had been rear- 

 ed in Barbados and in Java, and that in 

 Barbados several acres had been planted 

 with the descendants of these seedlings. 

 No report, however, was found dealing 

 with these facts, neither in books on 

 cane culture nor in botanical treatises 

 on sugar cane. The invariable state- 

 ment made was that sugar canes did not 

 produce seeds and were only propagated 

 by cuttings. 



At nearly the same period as Solt- 

 wedel, and quite independent of him, 

 Harrison and Bowell, in Barbados, suc- 

 ceeded in growing cane plants from 

 seed. Shortly afterward their experi- 

 ments were repeated all over the world 

 where sugar cane grows, and though 

 there were many failures, successes were 

 now and then registered. 



For the first few years the discovery 

 had only a scientific value, and many 

 experiments had to be made and several 

 drawbacks to be surmounted before the 

 cane growers got their share in the 

 success. 



