THE DISEASES OF THE SUGAR-CANE, 305 



has been the careful description of the symptoms on the 

 spot and the forwarding of specimens of diseased canes to 

 speciaHsts in the United States and Great Britain for 

 scientific description. Many of these parcels of diseased 

 canes have been examined and reported on at Kew, and 

 some of the reports have been published for general in- 

 formation.^ Barbados, Trinidad, Antigua, St. Kitts, De- 

 merara, St. Vincent, Jamaica and Mauritius have all been 

 examined with reference to cane diseases ; and in the bulky 

 mass of official reports we have a tolerable enumeration of 

 the more important pests in the Colonies." 



As regards British India, a good deal of information of 

 a general character has been collected in the Dictionary of 

 Economic Products.^ 



In this brief survey of the literature of cane diseases, the 

 United States Experimental Stations must not be omitted,* 

 although much of their work is inapplicable to tropical coun- 

 tries, because of the presence of a cold season. It is especially 

 noteworthy that the parasitic fungi do not seem to affect the 

 Louisiana canes in any marked degree ; while the various 

 " borers " may be kept in check by special treatment of the 

 plants during winter — a condition of things widely different 

 from the never-ceasing circle of life and growth in the Tropics. 



Lastly, the French Colonies, Martinique, Guadeloupe, 

 Reunion and New Caledonia have not arlded much of value 

 to the elucidation of disease phenomena ; although speci- 

 mens of canes have occasionally been sent to Paris, and 

 examined and reported on by plant pathologists." 



10. One of the most puzzling features in the study of 

 cane diseases is the concurrent presence of different parasites 

 in the canes. It is frequently a very difficult matter to de- 

 termine the real cause of any disease ; and it is not sur- 

 prising to find that the opinions of specialists are frequently 



•^ See A'^7£^ Bulletin. 



-See especially the Publications of the Botanical Departments and 

 Experimental Stations of these Colonies. 



nVatt (i). 



*See especially the Bulletins of the Louisiana Sugar Experimental 

 Station. 



^ Prillicux and Delacroix (i). 



21 



