[Book Reviews]

Abstract

THE position occupied by Java as a cane-sugar producing country, and the care bestowed on the cultivation of the crop, ensures a welcome to a book in English dealing with the agricultural methods employed on an important estate in eastern Java. This volume, written by the manager of the Krian estate, is virtually a text-book of sugar-planting under the conditions obtaining in Java. In addition to its utility as a practical guide, it should prove of interest from the point of view of comparative agriculture, since, in Java, local circumstances call for an intensive form of cultivation which does not obtain in all sugar-growing countries. The fundamental principles of sugar cultivation, however, are the same in all producing regions, and they are clearly set out by the author. There are two sections of the book. The first part, which is introductory, deals with cultural conditions in Java, and affords a discussion on soils, manuring, and the botany of the sugar-cane; while part two furnishes a practical account of the cultural methods adopted on the Krian estate, including operations down to the harvesting and transport of the cane, and deals also with certain aspects of estate administration. The book is excellently illustrated with photographs and coloured plates.

The Cultivation of Sugar Cane in Java: an Elementary Treatise on the Agriculture of the Sugar Cane in Java, and more especially on its Cultivation on the Krian Sugar Estate.

By R. A. Quintus. Pp. xii + 164 + 38 plates. (London: Norman Rodger, 1923.) 12s. net.