20t) JoUltiNAL Oh THE IJePAKTMENT OF AuKICULTUKE. SEPa'., 1922. 



Citrus Export. — A serious defect has been observed in citrus 

 fruit within the last few years, and was particularly severe this 

 season. From time to time the Government Fruit Inspector has 

 submitted specimens to the mycologist at Capetown, and the defect 

 had been ascribed by him to cold injury. Mr. Turner, the Citrus 

 Adviser to the Ehodesian Government, has recently called our atten- 

 tion to the same thing-, and he states that in the district where it 

 was most prevalent they had exceedingly hot weather followed by a 

 very cold spell. The trouble is not due to any parasitic organism, 

 and is probably to be attributed to unfavourable climatic conditions. 



In Rhodesia the chief injury is noticed in the Mediterranean 

 sweet and the Joppa varieties, heavy losses being reported this season 

 in the former. The fruit is puffy in appearance, and has a number 

 of sunken grooves, many of them in the longitudinal direction. This 

 grooving is due to the collapse of the oil glands in the affected area, 



Grooving and Splitting of Citrus Fruit. 



which is softened, but not otherwise unhealthy in appearance. Later 

 splits occur along these grooves and decay naturally sets in (see 

 figure). Such fruit is quite unfit for export. 



The Mycologist at Capetown also reports that many types of 

 unsuitable fruit still come forward for export. One finds long stalked 

 fruit, malformed navels, bad grading, injury in packing, various 

 blemishes, thick-skinned grape fruit, and abnormal oranges. 



Diseases in Sudan Crass. — Of the diseases Avhich have been most 

 in evidence this last season, and which are likely to prove injurious 

 to Sudan grass in this country, that caused by the fungus 

 Helminthosporium turcinum and an unidentified bacterial disease are 

 the^ most important, and of these two the latter is apparently the more 

 serious. 



As is the case with any injury to this crop — whether caused 

 mechanically or of disease origin — the symptoms of both these 

 diseases are characterized by a reddish brown spotting and streaking 



