AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



This work was prepared as a handbook to the diseases affect- 

 ing crop plants in the Lesser Antilles at the request of the Imperial 

 Commissioner of Agriculture for the West Indies, Sir Francis 

 Watts, K.C.M.G., during the writer's tenure of the post of 

 Mycologist on the staff of the Imperial Department (1913-1920). 

 Full use has been made of the work of previous occupants of 

 this position, namely : Messrs. A. Howard (1901-1902), L. 

 Lewton-Brain (1902-1905), F. A. Stockdale (1905-1909), and 

 F, W. South (1909-1913). The large obligations due to the 

 published papers of plant pathologists in other parts of the West 

 Indies and the Tropics generally are indicated in the text. 



The immediate aim has been to provide for the agricultural 

 officer and the planter a means of reference to the present state 

 of knowledge respecting specific diseases, and further to enable 

 him to compare his experience with the general body of knowledge 

 concerning plant pathology and its relation to agricultural 

 practice. The need for a local textbook of the subject in the 

 new West Indian Agricultural College has also been kept in 

 mind. 



Certain diseases have been included which have not occurred 

 in these islands, but are of interest in view of the possibility of 

 their appearance or recognition in the future. 



As the result of personal experience of which the whole 

 tendency has been to compel a mycologist to become an agri- 

 culturist, the writer is convinced of the need for a broad treat- 

 ment of his subject. The mycologist is most concerned with 

 the fungus, the pathologist with the disease, and the agriculturist 

 with the crop, but a combined view of the interests of aU three 

 is necessary for the production of an economic plant pathology. 



The writer is conscious that the present work is more successful 

 in revealing the want of knowledge on very many subjects than 

 in imparting it, but has the hope that even this function may 

 be found useful as establishing a datum line for future investiga- 

 tions. 



The thanks of the writer are due for critical perusal of the 

 manuscript to Mr. C. B. Williams, late Sugar-Cane Entomologist 

 in the Trinidad Department of Agriculture (the whole text). 

 Dr. S. C. Harland, late Assistant for Cotton Research in the West 

 Indies (Part I and the chapter on diseases of cotton), and Mr. 

 S. F. Ashby, late Microbiologist to the Jamaica Department of 



