, 1881-06-04

absence OF reliable evidence purely a mat
ter of conjecture. AS far as my knowledge
of the plant extends, | an disposed to
think that "cane seed" has not yet been
found, although in Bruce's travels he men
tons " that. in the East, cane may be
raised from seedn This statement. hOwev-
er. REQUIRES further confirmation, for al
though Porter repeats this upon Bruce's
authority, subsequent Investigations have
not proved it's existence. Numerous EN-
deavours nave been made to become pos
sessed of it, but without success. The
Royal Society of Jamaica took up the sub
ject many years ago, and instituted q syS-
tenn of careful and comprehensive enquiry
in order to settle this at that time doubtful
point.
The result of the enquiry was " that no
variety of sugar cane was known to perfect
it's seed tor indeed to produce anything
like seed) either in the West Indies, China
the Straits of Malacca, Egypt, or even in
the South Sea Islands, as in all these
countries the cane is entirely prOpagated
by cuttings"
Numerous methods have been tried and
many experiments made to induce the cane
plant 10 perfect its seed, but hitherto they
have proved unsuccessful Attem is have
also baen made to get the flowers of the
Guinea corn and Indian corn to impregnate
and fructify those of the cane. The eXpe-
Timent succeeded as far as the growth Of
the plants, their Towering together, and
the production of the seed upon the arrow
of the Indian corn was concerned, but no
seed appeared, and subsequent microscopic
examination showed that no change had
been effected as regarded the formation of
the seed.
There is, therefore. no we'll authenticated
instance of the plant having been raised
from uoad and Rrupp'S statement most
probably was a mistake, caused by his inn
perfect acquaintance with ne language.
This being the case, it would be beside
our purpose to speculate upon she proba-
bility of inducing this plant to perfect fer
tile seeds, but rather to devote our atten-
ton to the varieties we already possess
and there can be no reasonable doubt that
with judicious selection and careful cult
walton very superior and fixed qualities
may be obtained in the suGar-cane as free
ly as they have been in other plants.
" Sugar.cane has therefore rather deteri-
Grated than improved, ana it IS only worry
recently that it has been perceived that
unless some change can be introduced the
cane will, by degrees, degenerate at the
same time that the beet is progressively
improving. The result would in time, pro.
badly be the destruc ion Of the great tr0pi-
cal sugar manufacturing industry Is, |
venture to OellCVe, not likely TO become tie
case, for in this colony our sugar canes have
improved through careful cultivation under
suitable conditions. and this has also been
the case III the Mauritius with many varie-
ties Of cane forwarded from here. as is
shown by the fact that the director of the
Botanic Gardens mentions in his last re-
port that the cane garden has been discon,
timed in consequence of the planters being
fully supplied with new varieties Admit
ting, as stated, :" that the cost of carriage
is greatly in favour of Europe, while the
beet refuse is useful for ca tie feeding, and
the root enables a good system of a sue
cession of crops to he introduced on the
continent, where this sugar industry vastly
increases the production Of meat and corn
in the districts where it commenced, in adj
dition to giving very profitable employ
ment in the agricultural season" on the
other hand it must be admitted that the
element of success in beetr0Ot ~cultiva-
ton, upon which SO much stress has been
laid in the competition between sugar-cane
ana beetrUot, is tho value of the refuse
material for cattle-feeding purposes. Even
granting that the weight of the pulp is
Is per cent. of that of the beet, and the
yield of pulp from an acre of land is 70
cwts., large quantities of manures of vari-
GUS descriptions, and some of them costly
ones, and only %procurable with great diff
Guilty at q distance from manufacturing