68 



A vigilant watch must be kept for outbreaks of the disease. 

 By careful work almost all loss can be prevented ; by carelessness all 

 affected palms, and perhaps very many in a group or groups, may 

 be lost. The treatment mentioned above is quite reliable whatever 

 the causal fungus may prove to be. 



Bud-rot. — Cases of this disease have been reported on several of 

 the estates visited regularly by me. 



The characteristic feature of the disease is the rotting of the 

 terminal bud and surrounding soft tissues including the apex of the 

 stem. The first sign is the turning yellowish white of the young leaf 

 which has just opened ; following this the central unopened leaf 

 becomes discoloured and in a short time all the unopened leaves and 

 the growing point or apex of the stem decay and putrefy, the whole 

 " cabbage " being converted into a soft, foul smelling, putrid mass. In 

 the majority of cases which I have seen the older leaves appear 

 at the stage when the " cabbage " decays to be quite healthy. 



There is no indication of any organism other than bacteria in 

 the affected parts of diseased palms in the Malay Peninsula. 



Earle, Smith, Jonston, and Fetch all considered that the disease 

 was attributable to bacteria. Butler, the Imperial Mycologist in 

 India, described in 1906 a severe epidemic of disease among palmyra 

 and other palms in the Godaveri district of the East Coast of India. 

 The disease was confined to a limited area in the delta of the 

 Godaveri river. The cause of the disease was stated, as a result of 

 field and microscopic examination, to be a fungus belonging to the 

 genus Pythium, a description of which, under the name Pythmm 

 palmarum, was published in 1907. 



All these reports have been made within the last few years, 

 "The History and Cause of the Coconut Bud-rot" by Jonston, 

 published by the United States Department of Agriculture, gives 

 a very full account of the disease, and the author of that paper has 

 shown quite conclusively by repeated inoculation experiments that 

 the West Indian " bud-rot " is due to bacteria almost identical with 

 Bacillus coll. 



It is believed that birds and insects are carriers of the disease. 

 Whether or not the wounds are necessary for the inti'oduction of th'e 

 bacterial organisms, which are certainly pathogenic, into the tissue 

 of the plant I am unable to say, Rorer found that he was able to 

 produce the disease by pouring a culture of Bacillus coli into the 

 crown of a healthy tree which apparently was unwounded. 



When the apical gi'owiug point is affected there can be no 

 remedy. To save other palms it is necessarj' to cut down all dead 

 trees and destroy all affected parts with as little delay as possible. 

 It may not be possible to burn the infected material but every effort 

 should be made to get rid of it. By drenching with Bordeaux 



