Sugar-Cane Experiments

Abstract

IN the fourth number of the West Indian Bulletin, recently noticed in these columns, many pages were devoted to communications to Dr. Morris, the Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture, from Prof, d'Albuquerque, the Island professor of chemistry, and Mr. Bovell, the agricultural superintendent, in which an elaborate plan was laid down for undertaking an exhaustive investigation into the merits of several varieties of sugar-canes. The very full details therein given should be consulted by any one desirous of mastering the significance of the facts contained in the pamphlet now issued by the Commissioner, giving a “summary of the results of the cultivation of seedling and other canes at the experiment stations in Barbados in 1900.” Prof. d'Albuquerque and Mr. Bovell have read a paper on the subject before the Barbados Agricultural Society on the results of the cultivation and yield of selected seedling and other canes, and the pamphlet summarises the essential facts. It is important to remember that the experiments were throughout conducted on the ordinary system of natural cultivation, the planters themselves undertaking to set apart plots of their own plantations, so that the known and the unknown grew side by side, no exceptional treatment being recognised. In this way fairly typical results are obtained, and the results for subsequent years will, therefore, be watched with more than usual interest to see how the character of the season, as well as the quality of the soil, may affect the various canes. For the experiments seven stations were selected, representing the typical soils and climatic conditions of Barbados. Five of the stations were black soil, the other two red soil. At nearly every station there were duplicate plots of each variety, serving to show the variation to be expected with each variety from one part of the field to another. The lowest station was at an elevation of 100 feet above sea-level, the highest 910 feet, the rainfall in the growth period ranging from 56 inches to 89 inches. Fifteen selected varieties of canes were tested on the black soil estates, and ten of them on the red soil estates. For each variety the highest and the lowest yield in tons per acre in the black and the red soils respectively are given, and separate tables for black and red soils show for each cane the number of plots used for the investigation, the yield in tons per acre of canes and also of tops; the juice per cent, by mill; pounds per gallon of saccharose, of glucose and of solids not sugar; the quotient of purity of the normal juice; the juice in gallons per acre; saccharose in pounds per acre; and the sugar in tons per acre, calculated according to a formula supplied by Mr. Douglas, of the Diamond plantations, British Guiana. In the black soil B. 147 heads the list with 3.1 tons of sugar per acre, followed by B. 347 wilh 2.90 tons, and B. 208 with 2.83 tons, while at the bottom of the list stand D. 145 with 1.82 tons, the Burke with 1.73 tons, and the Bourbon with only 0.47 ton per acre. The White Transparent cane, which is cultivated in Barbados on a larger scale than any other cane, and may therefore be regarded as the standard for comparison, occupies a middle place with a yield of 2.41 tons per acre. In the red soil B. 208 takes first place with 3.34 tons per acre, followed closely by B. 156 with 3.32 tons and B. 147 with 3.31 tons, the lowest being B. 347 with 2.17 tons and B. 254 with 2.14 tons.