BOTANY IN THE SERVICE OF EMPIRE - THE BARBADOS CANE-BREEDING PROGRAM AND THE REVIVAL OF THE CARIBBEAN SUGAR-INDUSTRY, 1880S-1930S

This paper is a report on a scientific revolution in agriculture that has so far largely escaped the notice of the scholarly community. In t he late nineteenth century the Caribbean sugar industry was in a state oi crisis caused by competition from the subsidized European sugar be et industry and by disease in the naturally occurring varieties of sug ar cane. The revolution consisted of breeding disease-resistant, sucro se-rich varieties to replace the diseased ones. The cane-breeding prog ram, based in Barbados, was successful, and was a major factor in enab ling the Caribbean sugar industry to evolve into a modern agribusiness . The Introduction to the paper describes the crisis in the sugar cane industry, sets the cane-breeding program in the contest of a ''benign kind of agricultural imperialism'' that was promoted by the Royal Bot anic Gardens, Kew, and adopted as policy by the British Colonial Offic e, and notes that cane breeding was part of a wider interest in the im provement of commercially important plants. The greater part of the pa per consists of an examination of (a) the cane-breeding program in Bar bados and (b) the diffusion of the new varieties to other Caribbean is lands. The career of John Redman Bovell, who was in charge of the prog ram in Barbados, receives special attention. The paper draws on archiv al sources as well as on the specialized literature of cane breeders.