Lynne Wong's PhD thesis

pointing out that at 52 weeks old, dry leaf fibre of R 579 had the highest Brix-free water
value of 15.26%, and dry leaf fines of this cane variety also had high Brix-free water
(17.02%).
4.7.3.7 Cane component parts
The analytical data given in Tables 4.17, 4.18, 4.20 and 4.21 for dry leaf, green leaf, rind
and stalk were examined to answer the question whether the fibres from these cane
component parts are different for the four cane varieties and three ages and the same
question applies to their fines. Cane top was not included in this study, since only its fibre
was analysed. A highly significant difference (P < 0.001) was found for both fibre and
fines in the main effects of variety, age and component parts, as well as in the interaction
effects of variety x age, variety x component part, age x component part and variety x age
x component part.
When dry leaf was excluded in the statistical analysis, since there was insufficient material
from the four stalks sampled and additional material had to be collected from the same
replication in the field (Section 3.2), the results (Table 4.24) showed highly significant
differences in all the above cited parameters except that the interaction effect of variety x
age x component part was highly significant (P < 0.001) for fibres of green leaf, rind and
stalk, and significant (P < 0.01) for fines of green leaf, rind and stalk.
4.7.3.8 Crop location
The statistical analysis of the data presented in Tables 4.17 – 4.21 for the nine cane
components of triplicate cane samples of the variety R 570 of three ages obtained in 2001
and 2003 is shown in Table 4.25.
It is most relevant that the stalks of R 570 grown in different locations, i.e. Mon Trésor
sampled in 2001 and Nouvelle Industrie sampled in 2003 show a highly significant
difference (P < 0.001) in the main effects of crop and size, i.e. fibre or pith; and in the
interaction effects of crop x age, crop x size, age x size and crop x age x size. The
difference in the main effect of age is significant (P < 0.01). The difference in the
replications in the field was not significant.
It is worth mentioning that the rind also showed a highly significant difference (P < 0.001)
in all the effects except that of crop x size and crop x age x size.