— 
228 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ava., 1901. 
In answer to'the question as to the aggregate production last season, 
Manager Robinson stated that in Alachua county 4,500 bales were produced, 
with an average of 390 1b. to the bale, or a total of 1,759,500 lb., with an 
acreage of about 18,000 acres. The product sold on an average through the 
season at 21 1-2 (103d.) to 22 (11d.) cents per lb., which means that the cotton 
crop realised a sum that would reach into the neighbourhood of 387,090 dollars 
(£80,600). Inasmuch as the product was sold almost exclusively at home, the 
growers received the benefit of this money ; subsequently the merchants and 
commercial field generally reaped a proportion of the benefits, 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SUGAR-GROWING. 
By JAMES PINK. 
The prospective crisis in the supply of labour for the sugar plantations 
naturally gives vitality to the question, Cannot some other system of cultivation 
be brought into practice whereby cane can be grown under less exhausting 
conditions to labourers in the canefields? I maintain that this can be done, 
for the present system of culture is founded on the old adage “all things come 
from the soil.” Jn this case it is a misleading idea. The ash left in the 
furnaces after the mégasse has been burnt is the only part taken from the soil 
by the growing plant. The sugar extracted from the cane is composed of the 
gases carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and these are assimilated from the 
atmosphere, partly by the rootlets, but principally by the leaves. Therefore, 
under the present system of culture, the plants do not give the best results, 
and this is proved by the fact that cane grown in the experimental grounds 
always gives better returns than the same cane when planted out in the fields. 
Hitherto all the improved varieties of sugar-cane introduced here have, under 
our crude methods of culture, degenerated in a year or two to the average 
standard. The Creole cane came to Queensland with a great name; the first two 
crops grown at St. Helena gave 23 per cent. of sugar. To-day it is considered a 
third-rate variety, and the same can be said of other varieties. Taking all this mto 
consideration, what conclusion isit possible to arrive at except that our system of 
culture isat fault? Our present system is to grow as many tons of cane per acre 
as possible. The canes are planted so thickly in the field that they lose their 
bottom leaves too quickly, leaving just a tuft of leaves at the top of the cane to 
collect from the atmosphere the gases to be converted into sugar. Consequently 
the cane returns only a minimum instead of a maximum of saccharine matter, and 
therein lies just the difference between a good and a bad system of culture. 
The problem is, What other method is likely to produce the desired end? 
It is first necessary to consider how the cane obtains the constituents to be 
converted into sugar. According to Peligot’s analysis, cane sugar is com- 
posed of — 
Carbon ... on eee ow oe on oy Ppl 
Hydrogen ate m0 ocx ax o00 — 64: 
Oxygen ... an a: ab a a cc, NTS 
100°0 
all elements of the atmosphere. How they are extracted from the atmosphere 
is described by Liebig as follows:—‘‘The power of absorbing nutriment 
from the atmosphere with which the leaves of plants are endowed bein 
proportionate to the extent of their surface, every increase in the size an 
number of these parts is necessarily attended by an increase of nutritive power, 
and a consequent further development. The functions of the leaves are to 
absorb nutritive matter from the atmosphere, and with the aid of light and 
moisture to appropriate their elements. These processes are continually in 
operation; they commence with the first formation of the leaves, and do not 
cease with their perfect development, but the new products arising from the 
continued assimilations are no Peieee employed by the perfect leaves in their 
