The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-11-21

/ fOI existence. but whether any OF them
| die or not our crop will not be satisfac-
I tory unless secondary shoots. stronger
/ and richer than the first. come up
i This is the point; if We have the rows
I too near each other and the eyes toe
/ numerous in the row. We do the cane
] injury. but if we depend too much on
/ our cane sending out secondary shoots
| and consequently plant too far apart
I then We have too open q field and the
| yield is unsatisfactory. This is onIv
I too well known, / think. by all having
practical experience OF the work. and
must be decided according TO circum-
/ stances. For example. observed on
Paia and Hamakuapoko as many as
/ l2O sticks TO a 3O-fOOt row, while on
Makaweli We may plant as many as 1910
I eyes, or as few as thirty eyes in a 30
! foot row. Vet our final outcome VIII be
about seventy-fiye TO eighty-five sticks.
and these give us as many tons of SUI
gar per acre as the 120 sticks on Paia.
IL is therefore in the nature of the soil
or the one place to send out a great
many shoots of smaller size. and the
I other place TO grow a given average
number OF larger kind, assuming that
both places yield a given amount OF
0Asr1ttA pei dtAF. HIS subject mas Dpe0
again and again brought up for discus
sion. Years ago We planted far fewer
eyes to a given area and gradually
hearing and seeing enormous quantities
on some favored field of our neighbor.
We have added more and more eyes in
our planting, until no doubt it has
been very much Overdone. We are
liable to recede. however. too far IN the
% 81,
choose the right seed. and have all the
other conditions just as they should be-
then | think. one-third of the eyes we
now plant would do our work as eff
fectively. Another point frequently ar
gued over is. shall we use seed of one
eye. or three or four, or the whole stick
uncut? There can be proof brought
forward in favor of each of these meth
obs, yet this question, like the fOrego-
ing, is a very relative one indeed.
Three to four eyes seem to be a mean
between extremes so as to suit differ
ent soils where perhaps in special To-
CalitieS short seed of one eye, or an
uncut cane would serve equally well. or
perhaps better. In DR.. Sallard's work
on cane. he quotes Stubb's experiments
on this point, page sos. where in TWEEN
t. samples. the uncut cane yielded a
higher tonnage than the cut cane |
had an illustration of this on five acres,
which | planted some time ago. The
uncut cane at first was very irregular
but by eight or ten months it had gone
ahead OF the cut seed. There is no
proof whatever that the eyes on the
upper portion draw the nOurishment
from the eyes on the center or lower
end of the stick. 1t is more rational to
believe that each joint is complete
within itself and the middle or lower
end eyes being much older die earlier,
or if alive, sprout slower than the top
joint eyes. Cutting the seed, however, |
is correct, and on an average gives a |
chance that all the slower eyes are not |
Hence if there is any miss |
ing the field is more uniform and the !
missing parts not all together.
IRRIGATION.
No operation connected with growing |
zane is so surrounded with antlqIated |
notions on the one hand and prejudices |
ln the other. The fact seems self-evi- |
lent that some soils receive AMI re-
ain the water easily; others again al |
ow it to pass through, retaining |
scarcely any more than a layer OF sand |
loes. Some yellow, clay soils become |
sour if irrigated once a month; some
red lands require it every eight or ten |
lays, and there are all sorts of Sradu-
atoms between. We hear of such and |
such plantation making so many tons
Df sugar per acre; therefore the reas-
ming goes, with similar quantities of
water, other places should do SO like
wise. Some of the main factors on If
'igated plantations are depth and kind
ii soil, alluvial or not, temperature and
freedom from high winds, or, in other
words. climate. Our Islands are so
small that few miles changes our
Innate from rain TO sunshine, from
still, sultry weather TO vigorous north
,ast winds. Statistics could easily be
compiled showing how many cubic feet
y water through a crop produce so
many tons of sugar on this or that
but the information, at
,est, would, in the hands of the I'M
killful. be worse than useless, while
10 not require such information TO
suide them, unless all the other condi-
ions are equally plain.
AS rule, cane requires a good deal
II water; the land should not be drier
ACSN
o so per cent, yet the fact is some
lines forced upon us that cultivated
'ane is more a dry than a wet land
'rop. | think l can easily say, in
many instances, excessive irrigation
has leached instead of irrigated the
oil. Prejudices in this line die hard,
nd where an interest in subdivision
# water exists, they will grow strong
r rather than weaker. In this respect
hare planting has had an evil name
eng ago. On some of the larger places,
such as Spreckelsville, it practically
anne to a dead stand-still from this
more than from any other cause. 1t is
evident therefore that a proportion of
.creage is not always just division for
he amount of water. but the question
S so full of loopholes that we go on
% other parts of the subject; am
sure, however. that planting on shares
IN irrigated plantations will never be
popular nor give the satisfaction in the
future which it failed years ago to give