, 1890-11-29
Seeding & Canes.
From the Aro6su. Novbr. 1st.l

some facts of interest and Importance have
been discovered which are worth briefly sum
marising here. Since the time that the redis-
covery at Dodd's Botanical Station, Barbados,
Of the seminal fertility of the cane was authen-
ticated, realising its potential Importance, sys-
tematic experimental work has been carried on
at our own Botanic Gardens, as our columns
have before disclosed. That the very earliest
varieties of sugar cane can reach maturity the
first wear of their growth from seed has been
shown as possible under favourable tircum-
stances this season at, the Botanic Gardens
though, it must be admitted, that even with
these very earliest varieties, both the proper
ton Of canes in a stool and Of plants to a bed
of the same variety which flower the first year
is small. Seed Of the variety Kdr0kGTGrG,
which is one of the two earliest kinds In the
colony, was sown on LIST October last year.
Three months later the young plants were
taken from the seed boxes and pricked out in
baskets, five or six in each basket. Six weeks
later again they were shifted on singly INTO
larger baskets, which were about six inches
deep and wide, and in which they remained
till they were from l to II it. high, when ON
the 10th April last, they were planted, out IN
the open. ground. At that time each plant
consisted Of a solitary shoot, meme having be-
gun to sprout from the the base. A few weeks
later, however, they began to tiller freely, and
TO grow rapidly, and by the middle Of Septem'
Der a few shoots of the more advanced plants
were in flower thus completing the cycle OF
growth: AS, when they were planted out IN
the ground, in April, the young plants were
only in an equivalent stage to that OF q cane
top, put into the ground at the same time, the
record above given shows that seeding sugar
canes Of the earlier varieties make rapid and
vigorous growth once they get past the tedious
period of infancy, which occupies from four to
six months. Only, however, the Sery earliest
varieties mature the first year; all the rest,
though they may be only a month or $50 later
in their period Of Towering, miss the first
season of ~arr0wing, and consequently have to
70 on to the following autumn before a chance
Of performing that function occurs again so
that for the great majority of varieties 1T may
b. said that two years are required from the
time the seed was sown for the seedlings to-
mature, or from fifteen to eighteen months
f.ln the time they were strong enough to be
rhnted out in the open ground. This is q
uutflcicnt proof, if any wcro needed, that the
idea. of r~esorting to seed for propagation in
field agriculture is impracticable, and that the
present methods of propagation by cuttings or
stumps will have to be adhered to in the future
MS in the past, if only for economy In time.
But, of course, the insuperable obstacle to u.s.
ing seed in field propagation, even II time
could be regarded, as the Indian regards it, as
of no consequence whatever, is the delicacy
and slow growth of the sugar canein infancy.
In the climate of Guiana, field propagation of
the cane by seed would probably not yield an
average Of one plant per acre. AS we have
emphasized before in these columns, the only
useful way of employing the knowledge we
now possess of the sugar canes seminal fertili-
ty, is ip nursery propagation, with the object
Of obtaining new varieties. Of this method of
propagation and it's results we have now had
two seasons experience, and short as the
period is over which the experiments have
extended, the information gained is highly
interesting and instructive. Numerous facts,
naturally of varying Importance and practical
interest, have been discovered. two of which
ore of great value because of the promise they.
hold out Of ultimate economic improvement in
the sugar cane by this method of propagation.
The first of these important revelations is the
wide variation that occurs in seminal genera
ton in the sugar cane; and the second the
marked tendency to Improvement shown In
this variation. As was naturally to be ex-
pected there are numerous instances Sdt retro
erosion, but the general tendency is clearly
on the lines of improvement in each particular
variety that has been so far successfully tested.
The progress in improvement is gradual Of
course. and the degree naturally in direct pro-
portion. and relation to the character and quail
tv ~ the narent canes. The inferior varieties.