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kinds. There is not the least reason to doubt that with selection and good nursing, very superior and fixed qualities can be obtained in sugar cane, as freely as they have been in wheat, turnips, beet, fruit, garden flowers, and domestic stock. Tropical staples are ages behind Europe in this respect, and have hence grand possibilities in ovo, but they will not be realized without effort, judgment, and perseverance.
According to the West Indian, a Barbadoes paper, a foot in length of sugar cane grown in that island weighs ~ of a pound, and a bunch of canes grown in one hole weighs 54 pounds on an average, which yield 4 gallons of liquor or juice, from which 4 pounds of muscovado sugar are got. Of the 54 pounds, the juice weighs 50 pounds. An acre of ripe canes, planted six by five feet, gives 1452 bunches~ or 5808 gallons of juice, or 5808 pounds of sugar. At 50 pounds of cane to the hole (or hill) an acre of canes, planted as above, would weigh, when cut, 72,600 pounds, or 36 tons, 90 per cent. being juice. It takes these 36 tons of cane to give 2½ tons of raw sugar, or 360 tons, from a l0 acre field, to yield 25 tons of sugar. For the first six months the plant requires but little rain to keep it in vigor; but afterwards in needs a constant supply and an increase of growth in the last three months of the year.