512 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



CITRUS CANKER IN FLORIDA AND THE GULF STATES. 



By H. S. Fawcett, Whittier, California. 



The seriousness of this new fvino^ous disease was referred to by 

 Dr. Cook in The Monthly Bulletin for September. The hard and expen- 

 sive fight which the Florida growers are now waging against this disease 

 suggests that the citrus growers of this state should be thoroughly in- 

 formed in regard to the nature of the disease, so that it would be detected 

 at once should it by any hook or crook get started in any locality. This 

 is the motive for this article. The writer does not believe that the drier 

 climate of California would be at all congenial for its spread, nor does 

 he believe that with our present quarantine against all citrus trees from 

 the Gulf States there is any serious danger of its introduction, yet we 

 should be on the guard against any possible outbreak and thus be able 

 to deal with it at once. This new fungous disease, "citrus canker," 

 thought to have been introduced from Japan, is attracting serious at- 

 tention in Florida and in some of the Gulf States. The information in 

 this article is obtained from the following publications, which have all 

 appeared during the present year: Citrus Canker in the Gulf Coast 

 Country, etc., in Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 

 for 1914, by E. W. Berger; Citrus Canker in Bulletin 122, Florida 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, by H. E. Stevens: Circular 27, Ala- 

 bama Agricultural Experiment Station, by F. A. "Wolf and A. B. Massey ; 

 Bulletin 150, Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station, by C. "W. 

 Edgerton, and various articles in recent numbers of the Florida Grower, 

 published at Tampa, Florida. 



Attention was first called to this new disease by Dr. E. W. Berger. 

 Florida State Inspector of Nursery Stock, who found it on 40,000 young 

 trees in two nurseries in Florida in 1912, at which time its seriousness 

 was not fully known. Its damage is most severe on grapefruit trees, 

 the twigs and leaves and fruit of which are affected. According to 

 E. AV. Berger, the different citrus varieties are affected about in the 

 following order : Pomelo, Citrus trifoliata, wild lime, navel, sweet seed- 

 lings, Satsuma, tangerine. King orange and lemon. It seems from this 

 list that the lemon is least affected and the grapefruit is most seriously 

 damaged. 



Outside of Florida it has been reported in seven localities in Alabama, 

 one in Mississippi, five in Louisiana and three in Texas, and it has been 

 received in Florida on specimens of citrus from Japan. As far as known, 

 it originally came to this country from Japan. In one locality in Florida 

 it has beenfound on nursery stock which had been shipped directly from 

 Japan, and in another case on nursery stock from a Texas nursery which 

 is thought to have also gotten it directly from Japan. 



The seriousness of the disease is apparent from the following state- 

 ments, to be foimd in some of the publications mentioned above : 



In the Florida Bulletin 122, Professor Stevens says, "If it is once well 

 established in the state it may become a serious menace to the grapefruit 

 industrv. " 



In Alabama Circular 27, Wolf and Massey say, "This disease was very 

 severe in certain grapefruit groves during the previous season and 

 threatens to become the most serious difficulty with which the grower will 

 have to contend." 



