122 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
of Okeechobee produces good syrup. We 
planted cane last May and June, and we 
have now syrup ground from that cane 
pressed out in January. It was a great 
success with us. In this state there are 
thousands of acres which will grow fine 
cane, without fertilizer. 
Mr. Dade: How much syrup; I mean, 
how many gallons of syrup are produced 
per acre? 
Mr. McQuarrie: About 500 gallons to 
to the acre. 
Mr.-: I came to Florida about six 
years ago. I put in about two acres of 
seed cane; fine cane. I planted it so that 
it was on new land, took extra good 
care of it and gave it an extra amount of 
fertilizer, and it did splendidly. I ex¬ 
pected to use that first crop for seed but 
some way or other we did not quite have 
the land ready for that seed when the 
seed was ready. We inspected every bit 
of cane that went into the ground, but 
the borer came in somehow, and it turned 
yellow. 
It was on new ground and we gave it 
extra good care. It did not have any 
stable manure; nothing but commercial 
fertilizer, and it has always been a great 
question to me where that borer worm 
was introduced. There was no other cane 
within four miles. 
I think the proper way to go about 
having a mill to- take our cane, is to 
have someone go around to the different 
cane growers and ask each one, “How 
much will you supply for the mill ?” Then 
later he can go around with a contract to 
be signed by each farmer as to how 
much cane he will grow. You get such 
a thing as this established on this basis, 
and suppose the grower has a bad season; 
the people at the head of the business will 
go with that man to the bank and help 
him out to get the money he needs to 
buy fertilizer, or whatever he needs. I 
would like to- see the matter taken up 
and something done with it. On almost 
any land you can make a crop of sugar 
cane and make it quick. 
Mr. Taylor: I would like to know if 
anybody knows anything about the ori¬ 
gin of this worm, and how it started and 
all about it. Does any one know? 
Mr. Wilson: The borer worm has been 
in the state a long time. It is practically 
all over the southern states; it may have 
come from Cuba. I believe it was ori¬ 
ginally introduced into Louisiana from 
Cuba back in the ’yo’s. In Louisiana 
they raise sugar cane and make syrup in 
spite of the borer worm. The govern¬ 
ment has been studying this proposition 
for many years; sometimes they have had 
as many as three men at work upon it. 
Last year they had a man in Cuba, but 
it is impossible at this time to state posi¬ 
tively the best methods of control. 
They used to recommend in Louisiana 
that the tops be burned, the idea being 
that the eggs were laid in the tops, which 
is true. However, they found that by 
burning the tops off they were doing more 
harm than good, as burning killed the 
parasites as well as the borer. The last 
I heard, the control measures were pretty 
well up in the air, because they had to 
abandon the only control measures they 
knew anything about, that of burning. 
There are several government bulletins 
