POKTO RICO EXPERIMENT STATION. 463 



clain:i<j;e. The trees in (lucstion liad l)een stunted ))y overshudinj^ and 

 neglect. It is doul^ttul it" this tioubh* will prove a serious one wiiere 

 trees are in a condition of vio'orous growth. 



Lrdf-intlncj hi.srctti. — A small gray beetle Ix^longing to the Curcu- 

 lionida' is doing much harm by gnawing the expanding terminal buds 

 on the young twigs. As the leaf tissue gets older and harder it does 

 not seem to be attacked. On some trees almost every bud had been 

 gnawed and the young shoots very much injured. A few other unim- 

 portant leaf -eating insects were observed. Spraying with Paris green 

 is the indicated remedy in those cases where the damage is sufficient 

 to justify the expense. 



lilat-k aphis. — The young twigs of coflfcc are at times l)adly infested 

 by a lai'ge black aphis (species not determined). At the time of m}" 

 visit these were comparatively scarce and almost every individual seen 

 showed evidence of being parasitized, probably by some hymeu- 

 opterous insect. 



Coffee scale {Lecanium sp.). — A large brown Lecanium (probal)ly 

 Z. hemisphairiciu)i) is also at times al)undant and destructive, attacking 

 the young growth and also the berries and peduncles. At the time of 

 my visit but little of this scale could be found and that was heavily 

 parasitized b}- the same white fungus (Sporotrichum ?) mentioned 

 al)()ve as attacking this scale on the orange. This fungus is so etfective 

 in destroying the Lecanium that it is to be hoped some \\?i\ may be 

 found for successfully cultivating it in the lal)oratory, so that it can be 

 artiticialh- introduced when natural infection fails to occur. 



SUGAR CANE. 



Next to coti'ee this is the most important connuercial crop of the 

 island. Owing to lack of time, it was impossil)le to make more than a 

 casual investigation of this crop, and onh' one disease was noted. On 

 the beautifully lying level coast lands, where cane is mostly cultivated, 

 it would seem to be entirely pnicticable to use horse machinery in 

 preparing and ditching the land and in cultivating the crop to a nuich 

 greater extent than is now practical. The present excessive depend- 

 ence on hand laljor greatly increases the cost of production. 



Sinfdi'-cane root rot. — On entering Ponce by rail from Yauco con- 

 siderable areas in certain fields were noted from the car windows where 

 the 3'oung rattoon canes were very pale in color, in fact, almost milk 

 white, and whose growth was very feeble. On visiting these fields 

 the old stul)ble and the })ase of the voung canes was found to be envel- 

 oped in a mass of the white mycelimu of some hymenomycetous fungus. 

 No fruit bodies of the fungus were found on the stubble or on living 

 canes, but on some pieces of old cam; lying on the ground well-devel- 

 oped specimens of a jx-culiar white Schizophyllum were found. The 



