INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PUSA, FOR 1910-11. 51 



spreading infection from tree to tree are liberated at an 

 advanced stage of the disease. No other method of check- 

 ing this infection was found practicable than burning the 

 diseased tops before spores had time to form. This was 

 carried out by gangs of toddy drawers recruited by a staff 

 of subordinate officers of the Revenue Department under 

 the control of a special Deputy Collector. Up to the end of 

 the financial year 1910 about half a million palms had been 

 cut out in Godavari at a cost of some Rs. 50,000. The 

 operations were extended to Kistna in January, 1910. The 

 conclusions o-iven in tlie memoir are as follows : — " The 

 operations have been entirely successful in limiting the dis- 

 ease in Godavari District to the area previously infected. 

 Now that they have been extended into Kistna, it is fully 

 trusted that they will be equally successful in checking the 

 alarming spread to the south which has been going on for 

 some time in that direction. This alone should fuHv 

 justify the cost of the operations and their continuation. 

 It is unfortunately impossible to estimate the number of 

 trees saved from attack within the infected area. Still the 

 number of trees saved in those parts where the work has 

 been longest in progress must be many thousands, and apart 

 from preventing any extension in the Godavari District, it 

 is not unlikely that the value of the palms actually saved 

 within the district already exceeds the cost of the oper- 

 ations." Since 1910 the control of the work has passed 

 into the hands of the recently appointed Madras Mycolo- 

 gist, Mr. W. McRae. 



(b) Tea diseases. — A bulletin by Mr. W. McRae, on the 

 outbreak of blister blight of tea in Darjeeling District, was 

 published in July. This contained a more complete ac- 

 count of the disease than the publications on the same sub- 

 ject mentioned in last year's report. It is unfortunately 

 probable that the blight has come to stay in Darjeeling as 

 it does not seem to have appreciably diminished since its 

 first appearance. Many planters are experimenting on the 

 lines suggested by Mr. McRae for its control, but it is evi- 

 dent that effective measures will be most difficult to carry 



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