58 TBINIDAD AND TOBAGO BULLETIN. [XVIII. 2.. 



Report on a visit to Trinidad 



December, 1918-February, 1919. 



Imperial Commissioner, 



In accordance with your instructions I left Barbados by the Iloj^al 

 Mail Steam Packet ■' Caraquet " on December ]6 for Trinidad, arriving 

 in Port-of-Spain on December 18. I reported myself to His Excellency 

 the Governor on the following day. The question of my return was 

 discussed with His Excellency and the members of the Froghopper 

 Committee on January 16, and the approval of that body was obtained 

 for my return by the Royal Mail Steam Packet " Chaleur," leaving 

 Trinidad February 1 and arriving in Barbados February 3. 



2. In company with Mr. C. B. Williams I visited all the areas which 

 were considered likely to provide information on the subject of sugar 

 cane failure. 



3. Towards the end of my stay, with the permission of His 

 Excellency the Governor, I spent a few days in the investigation of the 

 so-called root disease of coconuts, as to which a separate report will be 

 made later. 



4. The situation which led to the request for my services I under- 

 stand to have arisen as follows : Mr. C. B. "Williams, Entomologist in 

 Charge of Froghopper Investigations, had found that the prevalence in 

 sugar cane fields of the condition known in general terms as blight, in 

 many cases did not correspond with the severity of froghopper infesta- 

 tion. In some cases of severe injury the insect was never present in 

 numbers which appeared to be at all adequate to explain the damage, 

 while in others froghoppers were present in large numbers with much less 

 visible effect on the cane. Mr. Williams reached the conclusion that an 

 additional factor must be involved in the production of blight, and this- 

 he came to believe was root disease of fungoid origin. For this reason 

 he desired the co-operation of a mycologist with experience of the effects- 

 of root disease in places where no complications with froghoppers exist. 



5. At the time of my arrival in Trinidad the froghopper infestation 

 was practically over for the durati on of the cuiTcnt crop, and I nowhere 

 saw more than a scanty and scattered remnant. The period of my visit, 

 which covered the last two or three weeks of the wet season and the 

 beginning of the dr^-, was the "most suitable for the estimation of the 

 position held by root disease in the final condition of blighted fields, 

 though it would have been more satisfactory if I could have approached 

 the subject with personal experience of the immediate effects of frog- 

 hopper activity. 



6. From an early stage in the investigation, and without prejudice 

 to conclusions as to the ability of the froghopper to produce serious 

 damage, it became evident that the name of the insect was in pojiuiar 

 use to cover practically all the causes which may operate to produce an 

 unhealthy appearance in standing canes. In many fields other adverse 

 conditions were present to a degree which I should unhesitatingly 

 accept as sufficient to account for depression or failure, without any need 

 to bring in the froghopper as an agent. Such conditions do, in fact, 

 regularly produce similar results in all the islands with which I am 



