Some years later Don Manuel Fernandez Unipierre (89) pub- 

 lished an account of his observations and experiments for the con- 

 trol of the situation in his Manual Prdcfico de la Agricultura dr la 

 Cava. According to his statements the disease, if such it were, was 

 completely controlled by thorough preparation of the soil, and sub- 

 sequent careful cultivation with especial care to provide projier 

 ditching. This latter detail was considered of great importance for 

 the providing of a uniform moisture supply, avoiding the extremes 

 of a water logged soil or a parched condition due to excessive drain- 

 age and evaporation in times of drought. 



According to Massee (61) a cane fungus was sent from Porto 

 Rico in 1878 to M. J. Berkely, who named the species in a letter 

 Darluca melaspora. Cooke in publishing this species ascribes the 

 fungus to Australia, which is considered an error by Massee. The 

 identity of the fungus, whether with Diplodia or with Melanconium 

 saccharic is not positive but with little doubt pertains to Melanconimn, 

 although both fungi occur here. 



With these exceptions there appear no available notes on the 

 cane fungi up to the time of investigations by the staff of the Maya- 

 giiez Experiment Station. In 1903 Prof. F. S. Earle (21) of the 

 New York Botanical Garden made a brief investigation of the insects 

 and the diseases of the economic plants of Porto Rico in the course 

 of which he encountered a sugar-cane root rot. He describes this 

 disease (found between Yaueo and Ponce) as one in which the 

 young ratoon canes ^^'ere very pale in color, almost milk white, and 

 their growth very feeble. The old stubble and the base of the young 

 cane was enveloped in a mass of white mycelium of some hymeno- 

 mycetous fungus. No fruiting bodies were found on tlie stubble or 

 young cane but specimens of a ScMzopliyllum Avere found and the 

 suggestion is made that there may be some connection between the 

 fungus and the diseased condition. On succeeding pages it will, 

 liovvev(M". be noted tliat what was seen by Prof. Earle was undoubtedlj'' 

 a case of chlorosis of cane together with one of the root fungi, pre- 

 sumably Mara.<imii(s sacchari or the stellate-crystal fungus, Himantia 

 stcUifcra. 



In the report of the Mayagiiez Experiment Station i'oi" 1!>(>7 

 W. V. Tower (86) reported an outbreak of the rind disease (due to 

 Melanconium sacchari) on the south side of the Island. 



In the report for 1908 G. L. Fawcett (26) reported the sugar cane 

 of Porto Rico as largely free from fungus diseases, with tlic exception 

 of some districts on the east coast where there had hccii' excessive 

 rainfall. The canes in one field were found to he suff<n"ing ninch 



180 



