Sugarcane breeding developed in the tropics in areas remote from universities. Despite some excellent scientific work such as that of Dutch breeders in Indonesia, opinions rather than research provided the basis for the early breeding systems used by most countries. This applied even to the most successful programs. At the time this author began full time work at Meringa Sugar Experiment Station in 1953, the Hawaiian system was probably the most successful overall. On a cost basis, the CSR program conducted by Ken Gard at Macknade was probably the most successful in the world. The theoretical basis was only one of the problems in the BSES breeding system, but it provided an important area for improvement.