THE SEREH-DISEASE OF SUGAR-CANE. 



Sereh (Se-ray') is the name of a very destructive disease of sugar-cane common in the 

 island of Java, the Straits Settlements, Borneo, Banka, Bali, and probably elsewhere in the 

 East Indies. 



This disease has been known in Java for more than 30 years, and many papers have 

 been published on it, but its etiology is still in doubt. The different conclusions respecting 

 its cause have been almost as numerous as the writers. 



Sereh in Java is said to have begun in the west end of the island, in the Cheribon Resi- 

 dentschaft, in the Cheribon or common cane of the country. It was first definitely observed, 

 according to Went, about 1882, in Ardjawinangan in Cheribon, but is surmised to have oc- 

 curred earlier in the more westerly Krawang. By the year 1 890 it had extended over very 

 nearly the whole island (May) . It was everywhere in 1 894 (Went) , having spread gradually 

 in 12 years from west to east. It was most severe in the early years (Went). This disease 

 has induced losses in Java represented in sum total only by many hundreds of thousands of 

 dollars. Anything like exact statistics can not be obtained, the losses having been partially 

 concealed, it is said, by the parties concerned. Some items, however, will give one an idea 

 of the magnitude of the calamity. According to Engelberts, Sereh caused losses in one year 

 (1888) in one locality in Java (Djokjakarta) of 181,413 pikols of sugar, equivalent to 27 

 per cent of the harvest of 1887, and worth 1,331,000 florins. According to May, in middle 

 Java, where the disease was then most destructive, the loss in 1888 was estimated at one- 

 sixth of the whole crop, and the loss in 1889 at one-third of the whole crop, using the yield of 

 1887 as a basis for calculation. He gives the loss in 1889 in this part of Java at between 

 250,000,000 and 500,000,000 Dutch gulden, i. e., roughly speaking, between $1,000,000 and 

 $2,000,000. The severity of the disease is also shown by the fact that the planters estab- 

 lished experiment stations for the study of the cane unaided at first by the government, and 

 also by the fact that at one time they proposed to import a European pathologist of estab- 

 lished reputation to study the disease, and actually subscribed 135,000 gulden for this pur- 

 pose (May). Everywhere the disease has been overcome by planting sound cane. The 

 cost of importing the Sereh-free bibit is very great, i. e., more than 15,000 florins annually for 

 most of the great sugar undertakings, according to Went. Probably $10,000,000 would not 

 cover the total loss from Sereh on the island of Java. 



The following account of Sereh is taken from Kriiger (Das Zuckerrohr und seine Kul- 

 tur, " p. 423 ff.) and from the Dutch writers, Soltwedel, Janse, Valeton, Benecke, Went, 

 and Wakker. 



The name Sereh is the Javan word for Andropogon schoenanthus, which the diseased 

 cane frequently resembles in its tufted manner of growth. Some, however, derive the word 

 from the Javanese word "ngere, " meaning to degenerate, become wild, or decline. The 

 former explanation of the origin is the more probable. 



According to Went, the progress of the disease in a plantation is as follows : 



The Sereh appears at first only sporadically; the year following one finds usually Sereh plants 

 everywhere; and the third year the disease occurs in such severity (when no measures are taken 

 against it) that a failure of the crop results. 



Sereh is called, by Benecke, the bacillus disease of the vascular bundles, also the red 

 slime disease of the bundles, and by Valeton the gum disease. It has also been designated 

 sarcastically: "The disease which has baffled seven botanists." 



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