F. J. F. SHAW : 39 
stem should be encouraged in order to increase the number of potential flower- 
bearing axes. Bearing these factors in mind the crop at Kamrup consisted of a 
thickly sown portion, in which the plants had grown up almost touching one 
another and which was being cut for fibre, and an area in which the plants had 
been thinned out to a distance of 18 inches and which was being kept for seed. 
All the jute was “ kakya bombai” and in both cases the stems had reached a 
height of about 10 to 12 feet. In the case of the thinned out seed crop, however, 
the stems were rather thicker and of course more branched than in the fibre crop. 
This seed crop showed many cases of the disease in a fashion precisely similar to 
the Pusa crop. In the fibre crop, however, diseased individuals were much less 
numerous, and in fact the trouble would mere or less have escaped notice and would 
not have been classed as adisease inthiscrop. A further correspondence with the 
facts observed in Pusa was furnished by two seed plots which had been sown on 
21st June, a month later than the remaining seed and fibre crops. These plants 
were much smaller than the earlier sown plants and the disease was not established 
among them. In one corner of one of these plots, however, the plants had grown to 
an exceptionally large size, possibly owing to some local richness of soil, and here 
about 30 per cent. of the plants had the disease. The yield of seed from diseased 
plants is very greatly reduced, as such plants dry up quicker than their healthy 
companions and are liable to shed their seed in the field. The actual formation 
of seed in the capsules also appeared to be Jess than normal. 
Thus the yield of seed per acre in the Assam plots was 5 maunds in 1917 in 
comparison with 7 maunds in 1916, and at Pusa the yield was 4:33 maunds in 
nie 
In 1918! jute was again grown on the Pusa Farm but the incidence of the 
disease was much less, save in one field which had been under jute in 1916. 
Here the crop was so badly diseased that the whole area had to be cut and burnt. 
The fact that it is only stems of a certain size and maturity which are liable to 
infection was well illustrated by some statistics obtained from this crop. Of stems 
over 5 feet high a proportion of about 20 to 25 per cent. was infected and 
the same amount of diseased plants was observed on counting only stems which 
were | inch, or more, thick at the ground level. In any jute crop, however, there 
are a considerable number of plants which are the result of late germination and in 
which the stems remain thin and relatively short. Among stems of this size the 
disease was practically non-existent, and if such plants are imcluded in the 
estimation the proportion of diseased stems may be as low as 3 per cent. 
The proportion of diseased stems among the larger plants, however, gives 
a more accurate measure of the extent of the damage to the crop. 
1 Scientific Reports of the Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, 1918-19, page 69, 
