60 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



(/) Palm diseases. — The " plague " of betelnut palms in 

 Bengal and Assam has continued to spread to the north and 

 east since first reported to Sir George Watt in 1896. Since 

 1905, when I visited Sylhet to attempt to discover its cause, 

 it has extended to Cachar and Goalpara. Specimens from 

 these districts, and from Khulna at the other extremity of 

 the affected area, were examined during the year. The 

 cause appears to be the fungus Polyforus {Pomes) lucidus; 

 this species occurs commonly on dying palms and reasons 

 were given in 1905 for supposing it to be parasitic. More 

 recently it has been found on diseased areca and cocoanut 

 palms in Mysore and Ceylon, and though its parasitism has 

 not been conclusively proved, it is considered to cause disease 

 in both localities. The losses in North-Eastern India have 

 been enormous, but the area affected is so large as to render 

 impracticable any attempt to check it on the lines of the 

 successful work against bud-rot in Madras. The applica- 

 tion of lime has been recommended and is reported to have 

 had a beneficial effect. 



{g) Tea diseases. — Mr. Shaw visited Cachar in December 

 to investigate tea canker. The cause of this disease still, 

 however, remains obscure. An Eocobasidium, closely allied 

 to that which causes " blister-blight " of tea, was discovered 

 by Mr. I. H. Burkill in the Khasia Hills on Camellia drupi- 

 fera, a wild relative of tea. I had some hope that this would 

 serve to explain the spread of blister-blight from North- 

 Eastern Assam to DarjeeJing, but on submission to a special- 

 ist it was found to be a distinct species. Blister-blight 

 was severe in parts of Assam this season and suggestions 

 for further experiments to aid in its control were given to 

 enquirers. The Scientific Department of the Indian Tea 

 Association published an account of the suggested connec- 

 tion between the tea-seed bug (Poecilocoris latus) and the 

 fungus infection of tea seed, based on work carried out by 

 me in the previous year. The section has been freely con- 

 sulted by that Department during the year. 



(h) Indigo disease. — A recrudescence occurred towards 

 the end of last season of the so-called '' wilt " of Java indigo 



