APPENDIX 285 



most important fungus diseases of cultivated plants in the 

 American tropics. The extent of the industry which it 

 threatened may be gauged from the estimate that American 

 consumers pay at least $200,000,000 annually for bananas; 

 and although the late war has somewhat checked the 

 exportation of this fruit to European countries, it is con- 

 sidered that the consumption of bananas in those countries 

 will soon rival that of the United States. It must also 

 be remembered that the home consumption of bananas 

 in some tropical American countries is of more importance 

 than the export trade. For instance, the city of San 

 Juan, Porto Rico, alone consumes about 3,000,000 dozen 

 bananas per annum, and for hundreds of thousands of 

 Porto Ricans it is one of the main articles of diet. 



When such an industry is threatened by a widely dis- 

 tributed and apparently infectious disease, it can be well 

 understood that banana-planters have reason to be alarmed. 

 During the past ten years the money loss in the cultivation 

 of bananas in Panama and Costa Rica has been estimated 

 to have been many millions of dollars. 



In Surinam a serious effort was made in the year 1906 

 to establish an export industry in bananas. By 1910 

 every field under the Gros Michel variety was affected, 

 and many planters were ruined. 



Last year the disease was almost universally prevalent 

 in the western part of Cuba in plants of a local variety 

 which is most esteemed in the Havana market, but is not 

 exported. 



Jamaica has not suffered any great loss from this disease, 

 due in part to the vigilance of the Government, which has 

 established a quarantine on all affected areas in the island, 

 but also undoubtedly to its climate and soil , which are 

 quite different from those in Central America, where the 

 disease is rampant. 



Apart from pecuniary losses as a result of this disease, 

 owing to loss of trade, there are three other classes of 

 losses which may briefly be mentioned (1) injury to the 

 fruit, (2) destruction of immature plants, and (3) depre- 



