310 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



quantities of grubs which tunnelled into the heart of the 

 canes. ^ 



We read that the introduction of the Bourbon Cane 

 into India was followed in 1857-8 by such severe diseases 

 that the canes were literally eaten out of the ground; and this 

 valuable variety disappeared altogether from cultivation.'^ 



During the same years in Louisiana a similar infestation 

 of grubs appeared which caused great destruction on the 

 Lower Mississippi. The canes broke to pieces in the fields 

 and no reaping was possible.^ 



In the years following 1872 a terrible outbreak of rust 

 appeared in Queensland and practically swept the cane- 

 fields bare.^ About the same time we read of oreat 

 epidemics in the Malay Archipelago, Mauritius, the Society 

 Islands and Bahia.^ 



13. In attempting to form a conclusion as to relative 

 abundance of present and past cane diseases, we are thus 

 confronted by many difficulties. Our records of the past 

 are exceedingly incomplete : increased scientific activity 

 has of late years brought to light numbers of new parasites 

 in the cane-fields : in these evil days the planter cannot 

 bear the loss of the hundreds of rotten canes which so 

 regularly litter the fields during the crop, and he becomes 

 clamorous : we are still in ignorance of the causes of many 

 diseases in the canes, and scientific opinion is not unani- 

 mous as regards those most studied. 



There are many reasons for thinking that the assumed 

 increase in disease during late years is more imagined than 

 real. Taking a general survey, the cane-helds of the world 

 appear to be fairly normal. Java, with all its diseases, 

 seems to have them well in hand. It is principally in our 

 own West Indian possessions, where scientific work is 

 largely discredited, that the wave of disease is rising which 

 threatens to carry away the last survivors in the economic 

 struggle with the beet producers. 



14. Our knowledge of the biology of the cane-fields has 

 made rapid strides during recent years, and we are better 



1 Bojer (i) ; Westwood (i). - Watts (i). ^ Cockerell (i). 



* Spon's Encyclopedia. ^ H^etc Reports, 1877-8. 



