B. P. I.-691. 



THE HISTORY AND CAUSE OF THE 

 COCONUT BUD-ROT. 



INTRODUCTION. 



• 



For more than 30 years the people of Cuba have discussed the 

 cause of the gradual dying off of their coconut trees and have 

 tte mpted to overcome it, but without success. As a result of the 

 unchecked progress of the disease the coconut groves have now 

 almost disappeared from the western part of the island and are con- 

 fined in a commercial way to a very small strip along the coast in the 

 Baracoa district at the extreme eastern end. Ten to eighteen 

 million nuts have been exported from this locality to the United 

 States annually for the last few years. Dr. Erwin F. Smith, working 

 on the disease in 1904, in the neighborhood of Baracoa, writes as 

 follows: ''If it continues to spread as it has done during the past 10 

 years it will inevitably destroy the coconut industry of the island, 

 and that, too, within the next 10 or 15 years." ^ 



This disease of the coconut is by no means confined to Cuba. It 

 has caused great loss in Jamaica, British Honduras, Trinidad, and 

 British Guiana, countries that are important sources of coconuts for 

 the United States. The trouble occurs also in less important places 

 in tropical America. A dying off of coconut trees in the Eastern 

 Hemisphere is thought by some to be caused by a disease identical 

 with that in the West Indies. It is probable that this is a widespread 

 trouble, occurring wherever coconuts are grown. Desultory studies 

 have been made of this disease at intervals ever since the early 

 eighties, and it has been ascribed to various causes, such as insects, 

 fungi, bacteria, atmospheric conditions, and soil. A malady so 

 actively destructive in certam districts demands more attention from 

 scientific investigators. 



The present work has been carried on with the hope of establishing 

 the cause and finding a remedy. The writer believes he has suc- 

 ceeded in showing that the disease is infectious and that it is due to 



1 Smith, Envin F. The Bud Rot of the Coconut Palm in the West Indies. Science, n. s., vol. 21, 

 Mar. 31, 1905, pp. 500-502. 

 228 



