THE DISEASES OF THE SUGAR-CANE. 



PART II. 



THE first part of the present essay ^ was devoted to a 

 consideration of the general character and prevalence 

 of diseases in the su^ar-cane An attempt was made to 

 determine whether this tropical plant, cultivated for thou- 

 sands of years, is in reality more subject to the attacks of 

 parasites in the present day than in past times. And the 

 conclusion arrived at was that, although the diseases were 

 in many cases severe and widespread, there was no oood 

 ground for supposing- that the cultivation as a whole was 

 threatened from this cause. 



It is none the less evident that, in the economic crisis 

 throuo'h which all suo-ar-growino; countries are at the 

 present moment passing, disease phenomena cannot be 

 neglected. It may well be that estates, just able to hold 

 their own against the severe European competition, would 

 have the scale turned against them by any unhealthiness in 

 their canes. The study of the pathology of the cane-fields 

 must therefore go hand in hand with the improvement of 

 machinery and reduction of expenses now acknowledged to 

 be absolutely necessary. 



In the present article it is proposed to discuss the way 

 in which this problem has been attacked in the Tropics. 

 Amid the general apathy of the planters, good hard work 

 has been done by the few who foresaw the threatening 

 danger ; and the scientific men in our own, as well as in 

 other countries, have spared neither time nor labour in 

 their endeavour to improve the general agricultural con- 

 dition of the cane plants. Attention was, in the first 

 instance, devoted almost entirely to animal parasites ; and 

 the remedies suggested were drastic, and pointed directly 

 at their extermination. It was proved later that fungi of 

 various kinds were attacking the canes as well ; and for a 



1 Barber (i). 



