[Cir. 126— A] 



FUNGOUS DISEASES LIABLE TO BE DISSEMINATED IN 

 SHIPMENTS OF SUGAR CANE/ 



By Ethel C. Field, Scientific Assistant, Office of Cotton and Truck Disease and 



Sugar-Flant Investigations . 



INTRODUCTION. 



Sugar cane in the United States has been rehxtively free from 

 fungous diseases so far, but as the industry grows it is to be expected 

 that foreign diseases will creep in along with imported sugar cane 

 for propagation, as has already happened in a few instances. Every 

 effort should be made to elmiinate these diseases and to prevent the 

 further mtroduction of new ones. Since inspection is not adequate, 

 the most feasible method of dealing with sugar-cane imjiorts is to 

 grow them under quarantine. Mr. E. J. Butler, imperial mycologist 

 of India, who is familiar with cane diseases in Bengal, makes practi- 

 cally the same suggestion respecting imports into that country. He 

 states in his discussion of the red-rot stem disease that "experience 

 has shown — explain it how we may — that new importations are 

 particularly liable to fall a prey to disease. Where a foreign variety 

 is introduced it will probably be better to grow it for some years 

 in seed beds with careful cultivation before planting out on a large 

 scale." 2 



A brief description of some of the most important diseases is here 

 given, being mostly compiled from foreign publications. The 

 various leaf diseases have not been included, although the annual loss 

 caused by them is not inconsiderable. 



RED-ROT OF THE STEM. 



Red-rot of the stem {Colletotrichum falcatum Went) was first 

 detected by Dr. F. A. F. C. Went in 1892 at the Tjomal factory in 

 Java. He described the disease later under the name of red-smut, 

 which has since been supplanted by the above name on account of 

 the presence of a true smut on sugar cane. The disease has become 

 widely distributed over cane-growing regions, having been reported 

 from Queensland, Bengal, Madras, Madagascar, Hawaii, and the West 



1 Issued May 10, 1913. 



2 Butler, E. J. Fungous diseases of sugar cane in Bengal. Memoirs, Department of Agiiculture, India, 

 Botanical Series, v. 1, no. 3, p. 22, 1906. 



[Cir. 126] 2 - 



