10 BULLETIN 486, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
testing of seedlings, using seed matured in the Tropics and sprouting 
it in the greenhouse under carefully controlled conditions as to heat 
and moisture. Several varieties .of much promise have already been 
produced and multiplied in sufficient abundance for trial under field 
conditions. Among those favorably reported are L 511, L 218, L 219, 
L 231, and L 226, samples from all of* which have been supplied 
through the kindness of Mr. "W. G. Taggart, in charge of the Sugar 
Experiment Station at New Orleans, and are now being propagated 
by the United States Department of Agriculture at Apalachicola, 
Fla., and at Cairo, Ga. The tests in Georgia are in comparison with 
a number of the older varieties and some new seedlings from foreign 
countries. 
Because of the great diversity of characteristics among sugar-cane 
seedlings, seedling production and testing is the most hopeful method 
of attacking many of the problems in sugar-cane production, such as 
the increase of sugar content, earliness of maturity, disease resistance, 
and adaptation to soil conditions. Since the soil and climatic charac- 
teristics in different cane-growing localities vary greatly, and since 
the success of cane varieties depends so much upon these character- 
istics, it is highly desirable to carry on the testing of seedling vari- 
eties in many different typical localities. 
SOIL REQUIREMENTS. 
Since all varieties of cane make heavy demands upon the soil for 
plant-food constituents and water, the soil must be suitable to pro- 
vide these under the conditions otherwise prevailing. If the rains 
are not well distributed and if periods of drought are to be expected 
without provision for irrigation, it is essential that the soil be a 
medium-heavy loam or a clay with an abundance of 'humus. If the soil 
is very sandy and lacks humus, it is practically impossible to supply 
the necessary plant-food constituents economically just when the 
plants need them, even if rains are abundant and well distributed. 
Such soils do not retain well the commercial fertilizers and therefore 
make necessary frequent applications and occasion much wastage. 
While such sandy flats as those that occur so extensively near the 
southern Atlantic and eastern Gulf coasts can be made to produce big 
crops of sugar cane, this can not be done continuously without involv- 
ing so much expense as to make it unprofitable. Frequently such land 
produces a fairly good crop while it is new ground and while the 
vegetable mold from the native forest growth supplies an abundance 
of humus. In succeeding years, after this is exhausted, it is only by 
the liberal application of mineral plant foods and of organic matter 
in the form of green-manuring crops and barnyard manure or their 
equivalent that good yields can be secured. It is otherwise with the 
