4G4 RKPOKT OK OKFK^K OK KXPEKIMKNT STATIONS. 



disease rosoinblos closely the M:ir:isinius cane disease of liarbados," 

 and some of the other islands. It is ])()ssihl(' (hat it will ])r<)ve to be 

 this disease, hut the synii)tonis arc slii^htly dill'cMcnl, and no fruit 

 l)odie.s of the Marasniius eould he found. Sfkiz<>j)}tijlhLiii. lolxttnni i.s 

 known as a wound parasite in .Java,* so it .seems possible that the 

 Schizophyllum found on the old canes may be connected with this root 

 trouble, but no direct evidence of such a connection was secured. 

 Laborers were nt work di<icinii^ out the dead and dyino- hills with hoes 

 and replantino- them. This will doubtless prove to be a waste of labor 

 as the soil is so well sto(dvcd with the funoms that the new cuttinirs 

 will soon eontrat't the disease. Such areas should be at once plowed 

 up and not replanted to cane for a term of years. So far as observed 

 the disease was mostly confined to certain areas of poor, white, rocky 

 soil, and it was only seen in this one locality. It is hoped that it will 

 prove to ])c oidy a local outbreak. 'J'hc soil on which it was found 

 w^as poorh^ suited to cane in the first place and ou^ht not to have been 

 planted to this crop. 



TOBACCO. 



Tobacco is an important crop in Porto Rico. The ((uality of the 

 leaf grown in the open is good, and recent experiments show that 

 under cheese-cloth tents a wrapper leaf of the finest quality can be 

 produced. It was offseason at the time of my visit, so that the only 

 plants seen were those that had produced the regular crop and one 

 rattoon or sucker crop that had been harvested and were now growing 

 a second sucker crop that was being allowed to run up to seed. The 

 indiscriminate saving of seed from such old and exhausted plants can 

 hjirdly be a wise practice. 



Tohacco wilt. — In one small field in a sandy river })ottoin near Ponce, a 

 portion of these old plants were seen to be dying from some wilt disease. 

 On pulling up the freshly wilted plants one or more of the fibrous 

 roots were found to be brown and paitially rotted, while the brown- 

 ing had extended up in irregular patches on the main root or crown 

 until this had been girdled. In some cases this browning extended up 

 to the surface of the soil. The disease seemed to involve the ])arkand 

 cambium layer, but did not at first penetrate to the hard, central, w^ood}^ 

 tissues and did not discolor the vascular bundles. No fungus was 

 observed on the f reshh' killed tissues. An agar tube inoculated on the 

 spot with a fragment of the discolored tissue of the cambium layer has 

 developed an abundant growth of bacteria, but no fungi. It has not 

 been possible to make further studies of this disease. It should be 

 carefully investigated, as it shows characteristics that might make it 

 dangerous. 



« See A. Howard, Diseases of Sugar Cane in the West Indies, Annals of Botan)', 

 17 (1903), pp. 391-413. 



SRaciborski. See a review in Centbl. Bakt. u. Par., 2. Abt., 5 (1899), p. 169. 



