FIELD STUDIES OF THE DISEASE. 41 



Table I. — Inoculations of coconut trees, February and March, 1908 — Continued. 



Source of 

 culture. 



Cuba: 

 164. 



201. 

 201. 



Character of colony 

 or culture. 



Juice of diseased 



tissues. 

 do 



Juice of diseased 

 tissues poured 

 on, not injected. 



Check tree inocu- 

 lated with sterile 

 agar. 



Check; inoculation 

 hole but nothing 

 injected. 



Results. 



No result; inoculation too low. 



No external symptom of disease. 

 Do. 



Absolutely no effect toward rotting the 

 tissues. 



Do. 



It will be seen from a study of the -table that the inoculations were 

 scarcely successful in proving the bud-rot to be due to bacteria. It 

 will be remembered, however, that these were the first inoculations 

 made by the wi-iter, and apparently most of them were made in 

 parts of the tree seldom affected by the bud-rot. This was owing 

 to the difficulty of locating the precise area suitable for inoculation, 

 a feature that has since been overcome by rather extended studies. 

 All that can be said for this series of inoculations is that some of 

 them, at least, showed a rot typical of the bud-rot. In view of the 

 fact that the check moculations did not affect the tissues in this way 

 at all, it would seem to indicate that those few cases which had an}'' 

 rot or decay were actually caused by the organisms inoculated, 

 notwithstanding the fact that in other cases certain organisms 

 injected did not cause such a rot. No material was obtained from 

 these artificially diseased tissues in order to reisolate the organisms 

 mjected. 



In the summer following this series two more moculations were 

 made: On June 22 tree 173 was inoculated with a bacterial culture. 

 Externally it showed no signs of infection until October 21. The 

 tree was then cut down and carefully examined, when it was found 

 that the entire heart of the tree was in a soft, putrid condition, 

 typical of the bud-rot. Previous to inoculation this tree was bearing 

 poorly, but not showing any distinctive signs of the disease. 



Tree No. 380 was inoculated on July 22 as follows: AU traces of 

 the lower leaves were cleared away, so as to expose as much as pos- 

 sible of the white tissue about the bases of the remaining leaves; 

 then small pyramidal pieces, 2 centimeters deep, were cut out, 

 infected agar was put inside, and the pieces were replaced. Several 

 of these moculations were made, and bandages of wet cotton were 

 tied about the wounds in order to maintain a constantly moist con- 

 dition. On^ August 6 this tree was examined and none of the inocu- 

 lations appeared to have taken effect. Either the right organism 



228 



