24 HISTORY AND CAUSE OF THE COCONUT BUD-ROT. 



I entirely agree with Mr. Doull that the disease is spreading and no one, so far as I 

 am able to ascertain, has tried the other remedies you suggested. 



The disease is steadily thinning the coconut trees in and around the town, and its 

 progress appears more rapid in the dry weather than in the rainy seasons. (J. W. 

 Gruber. Dated May 4, 1892, addressed to W. Fawcett and on file at the botanical 

 department at Hope Garden.) 



In addition to the investigation of the disease by the staff of the 

 botanical department of Jamaica, Prof. F. S. Earle, while on the 

 staff of the New York Botanical Gardens, made studies of various 

 maladies in Jamaica, in 1902, and among others investigated the 

 coconut disease. His descriptions of it correspond exactly to the 

 descriptions of the Cuban bud-rot. He came to the conclusion that 

 it is a bacterial disease without, however, carrying on any infection 

 experiments to prove this. He reports it as occurring not only in 

 the extreme western part of the island, but also as far east as Port 

 Antonio. He makes the noteworthy statement that at the time of 

 his visit the disease was attracting little attention. 



Mr. W. A. Murrill, also of the New York Botanical Gardens, visited 

 Jamaica in 1908 and reported on the occurrence of the bud-rot in 

 that island as follows:^ 



December 17 I left [Port Antonio] * * * and drove eastward along the north shore 

 by Blue Hole and Priestmans River, and some distance beyond turned inland toward 

 the John Crow Mountains until the road became impassable for vehicles, the trail 

 continuing to Manchioneal. * * * Mr. Henslow pointed out trees 10 years of age 

 that had been sprayed with Bordeaux mixture for the bacterial disease of the bud 

 which has wrought such havoc with the cocoanut in Cuba, the Bahamas,^ and else- 

 where. The treatment has undoubtedly yielded good results, but the application of 

 the mixture is sometimes a difficult problem. 



The earliest published note of the occurrence of any serious coconut 

 disease in Trinidad appears to be a letter from ^Mr. W. Greig to the 

 imperial commissioner of agriculture for the West Indies, written 

 June 30, 1905. Mr. Greig called the attention of the commissioner 

 of agriculture to the fact that this disease was on the increase and 

 thatt according to the observations of Mr. August Busck, the disease 

 in Trinidad was the same as the one studied by him in Cuba. 



In vSeptember, 1905, Mr. J. H. Hart, formerly superintendent of 

 the Botanical Gardens, made a personal investigation of La Retraite 

 estate at Cedros. Here he found trees diseased from the ground 

 upward, the stem showing a ring of red discoloration lying between 

 the woody exterior and the softer interior. The discoloration became 

 more prominent toward the growing point and appeared particularly 

 at the base of the leafstalks and at the base of the embryonic spathes 



1 Murrill, W. A. Collecting Fungi in Jamaica. Journal, New York Botanical Garden, vol. 10, Feb- 

 ruary, 1000, p. 25. , •« J T-. 



! Mr. Murrill's statement as to the occurrence of the bud-rot in the Bahamas can not be verified. It 

 certainly is not present to any great extent on New Providence. 



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