A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. 



Vol. IV. No. 95. 



BARBADOS, DECEMBER 9, 1905. 



Price Id, 



CONTENTS. 



Bud-Rot Disease of the Cocoa-Nut 

 Palm. 



ENTION has already been made in the 

 Agricultural News (Vol. IV, p. 299) of 

 the occurrence in the western tropics of 

 a serious disease of the cocoa-nut palm, known as 



' bud-rot.' As was briefly stated in the last issue of the 

 Agricultural A^civs, all the available information 

 relating to this disease, which is causing considerable 

 anxiety all over the West Indies, has been collected 

 and reprinted in the West Indian Bulletin (Vol. VI, 

 no. 3) in the hope of assisting in the efforts that are 

 being made to confine it within the localities where 

 it now exists. 



An important point which appears to have been 

 established is that what is now known as the ' bud-rot' 

 disease has probably existed in this part of the world 

 for more than thirty years. It is not unlikelj' that one 

 of the diseases of the cocoa-nut palm, investigated in 

 British Guiana in 1875-6 by the late Hon. William 

 Russell, may have been identical with that since known 

 as bud-rot. In 1893 mention was made in the Kew 

 Bulletin of a disease described as 'fever' which was 

 reported to be occurring in British Honduras. It is 

 suggested that this disease also may be allied to, if not 

 identical with, that described by Mr. Russell. 



It is probable that between 1S7G and 1891 the 

 effects of the disease were not of a serious character. 

 But after the American occupation of Cuba cocoa-nut 

 palms in that island were found to be dying in large 

 numbers of a mysterious disease, and more general 

 interest was taken in it. In consequence, an officer of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture was deputed to 

 make detailed investigations in 1901. Since that time 

 the disease has been investigated in Jamaica and 

 elsewhere. 



Latterly, the bud-rot has forced itself into 

 prominence in Trinidad, where, on one plantation, it is 



