separated from it morphologically. It would seem to the writer that 

 this point is of considerable, value, for it may be assumed that so 

 long as the fungus is present in the field anywhere, either on the 

 leaf-sheaths or elsewhere, that there is a possibility of some damage 

 whenever the right conditions for it occur. There is some variation 

 in the different varieties of cane so far as apparent susceptibility is 

 concerned, and observations have been made on over 50 varieties. 

 However, the occurrence of the fungus does not seem to be constant 

 so that up to the present it is not possible to state definitely that 

 certain varieties are more immune than others. In general the softer 

 varieties such as T77 are more commonly infected on the leaves than 

 such as D116. 



OCCURRENCE ON CANE CUTTINGS. 



Very commonly cuttings that have failed to germinate have been 

 dug up and found infected with this fungus, apparently killed by it. 



On one occasion several sacks of cuttings were kept for a period 

 of five weeks. When they had been cut they were supposed to be 

 free from disease, but examination at the end of the five weeks showed 

 that out of 156 cuttings, 135 had the rind fungus, and of these 135, 

 71 had the rind fungus and no other. 



LOSS DUE TO THE RIND FUNGUS. 



In a disease of this kind it is impossible to state definitely the 



amount of loss caused. The injury is usually associated with that 



due to other causes, and it is impossible to consider them apart. One 



may say that a certain field of cane is entirely destroyed by the rind 



fungus, whereas the rind fungus might not have infected the cane 



in the first place if it had not suffered from root disease, drought, 



moth-liorer injury or anj^ one of several factors. It is also just as 



true that one may say that the same field was entirely destroyed by 



anv one of these factors, where as a matter of fact the loss would j 



I 

 not have been half so great without the rind fungus. In general 



terms I would state that the loss due directly to the rind fungus is 



often very heavy, involving a partial or complete loss of liundreds 



of acres of cane in some seasons. 



I 



TREATMENT OF THE DISEASE. 1 



It is sometimes unsafe to make recommendations for the treatment 

 of a certain disease when the cause or nature of the disease is not 

 well understood. If the recommendations are restricted to general 



40 



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