22 HISTOEY AND CAUSE OF THE COCONUT BUD-EOT. 



GENERAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DISEASE IN THE WEST INDIES. 



Various investigators of tlio West Indies and of the United States 

 have devoted some time to tliis disease of the coconut and have 

 tried many cUfierent methods of controlUng it, so that it is desirable 

 to state here the results of their work. 



" In 1901 requests from the coconut planters of Baracoa, Cuba, to the 

 United States Department of Agriculture resulted in the assignment 

 of Mr. August Busck, of the Bureau of Entomology, to investigate 

 the disease. Mr. Busck started in August and traveled for several 

 months over various districts. He investigated the purely entomo- 

 logical aspects of the disease and reported that while numerous 

 insects were present in the rotting tops of the trees none of them 

 seemed to occur in sufficient numbers to be considered responsible 

 for the trouble. He was unable to find the palm wee\al at all. 

 Considerable fungous growth which was thought to be the cause of 

 the decay was noted in the crown. The fungus was identified as 

 Pestalozzia imlmarum Cke., the cause of a widespread coconut-leaf 

 disease. 



In 1904 Dr. Erwin F. Smith, plant pathologist of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, continued the investigations. 

 Most of his examinations were made in April. Before visiting the 

 island he assumed, from Mr. Busck's statement that the terminal 

 bud of the tree was involved in a soft rot, that the trouble was 

 probably due to bacteria. Dr. Smith's own investigations, covering 

 a period of about six weeks in eastern Cuba, confirmed him in this 

 idea. Microscopic studies and numerous poured plates were made 

 from trees in various localities — Baracoa, Mata, and Yumuri. He 

 found only bacteria in the advancing margin of the diseased parts in 

 the crown of the tree. Plenty of fungi and insects were presen t in adj a- 

 cent rotted tissues, but these were considered to be of secondary impor- 

 tance. No inoculation experiments were carried on to prove the 

 bacterial origin of the disease. Dr. Smith, however, retained interest 

 in the subject and induced the writer to undertake tliis research. 



Dr. Carlos de la Torre, of the University of Havana, in an address ^ 

 at the university, admitted that the putrid condition in the crown of 

 the coconut tree was due to bacterial fermentation, but claimed it 

 should be considered as a consequence of the dying of the tissues and 

 not as a cause. To him it was clear that the scale insects were the 

 primar}'' cause of the diseased condition. Unfortunately, he made 

 no experiments to support liis theories. 



The Cuban Central Agronomical Station has also carried on work 

 in the past two or three years to ascertain the cause of and a remedy 



» Torre, Carlos de la. La Enfermadad de los Coooteros. Revista de la Facultad de Letras y Ciencias, 

 Universidad de la Habana, vol. 2, May, 190C, pp. 2f.9-281. 



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