Current Investigations in Economic Botany. 89 
of known parentage on both sides but details are not yet available 
as to their characteristics. The experiment is of great interest and 
importance as demonstrating that rigidly controlled hybridization of 
the sugar cane is practicable and steps are being taken by others to 
continue the work along these lines. 
Having now sketched the methods employed in the raising of 
seedling canes and the principal practical difficulties which have to 
be contended against it is desirable to review briefly the main 
results attained, and to do this it is desirable to look back a few 
years and note what were the conditions which gave an impetus to 
the raising of seedling canes. About twelve yearsago the“ Bourbon” 
was the standard cane of the West Indies and was very extensively 
cultivated, but it became very subject to the attacks of fungoid 
diseases, so much so that in some cases in bad seasons whole fields 
were rendered practically worthless. Effort was made to combat 
the disease and attention was early directed to the question of 
finding disease resistant varieties. In Barbados for instance in 
1891 the variety known as Caledonian Oueen gave good results on 
an estate where it had been planted along with the Bourbon 
although the latter canes were so attacked that they had to be 
destroyed. Seedling canes were also tried and at the experiment 
station at Barbados the seedling B. 147 gave during the years 1894 
to 1898 an average of nearly 2,000 lb. of sugar per acre over the 
yield of the Bourbon under similar conditions, the actual figures 
being B. 147, 7,190 lb., Bourbon, 5,210 lb. Another seedling cane 
B. 208 has also proved itself of great value and these two varieties 
are now cultivated in the colony on an extensive scale, although the 
most widely grown cane at present is White Transparent one of the 
so-called “ older varieties ” of unknown origin. The Bourbon cane 
in Barbados has almost entirely disappeared. The two Barbados 
seedlings have not only given good results in the country of their 
origin ; B. 208 is according to Dr. Cousins “well suited to all parts 
of Jamaica and is probably the best cane now available.” It has 
also given good results and proved of considerable economic value in 
Antigua, St. Kitt’s and Nevis, in British Guiana, and as far afield as 
Louisiana and Queensland. Seedlings of high value have also been 
raised in British Guiana (these are designated by the letter D) and 
again quoting Dr. Cousins “ D. 95 has [in JafTiaica] proved a great 
success. This cane has give double the yield of crystallized sugar 
per acre, as compared with the Jamaica oane and upon a commercial 
scale.” 
