THE CUBA REVIEW. 



25 



INSECTS AND DISEASES OF VEGETABLES. 



(From Reports of the Cuban Agricultural Experiment Station.) 

 (specially prepared for the CUBA REVIEW.) 



Insects Injurious to Stored Seeds. — It 

 is difficult to keep corn, peas, beans and 

 many other seeds from year to year in 

 Cuba on account of the weevils and other 

 insects which attack them. Small quan- 

 tities of seed may be kept in tight bot- 

 tles or boxes with a few balls of naptha- 

 line. Larger quantities should be placed 

 in a tight box and fumigated with carbon 

 disulfid, using i ounce of the liquid for 

 every 62Y2 cubic feet of space. The 

 liquid should be placed in a shallow dish 

 just above the seeds. After fumigation 

 the seeds may be stored in the same box 

 or in tight paper bags. An examination 

 should be made from time to time and, 

 if the insects reappear, the treatment 

 should be repeated. It should be remem- 

 bered that carbon disulfid is inflammable 

 and should not be handled near a fire or 

 a lighted match or cigar. 



Cabbage Rot. — Cabbage, cauliflower, 

 kohl rabi, rape and related plants suffer 

 from a rot of the leaves and' stem which 

 is evidently carried over in the soil from 

 year to year. The remedy is prevention 

 by planting in uninfected land. Care 

 should be given to the seedbeds in order 

 to secure healthy, uninfected plants. The 

 beds should be on land not recently 

 planted to crops of this class and brush 

 should be burned over them before sow- 

 ing the seed. The plants should be set 

 out in land that has not been used for 

 any of these crops for a year or more. 



Tomato Diseases. — A leaf spot and a 

 leaf mould both affect the tomato, short- 

 ening the productive life of the plant. 

 Spraying with bordeaux mixture is a 

 remedy for both these diseases and often 

 it would probably pay well to use it. If 

 there is trouble with the green tomato 

 worms (primavera) paris green may be 

 added to the bordeaux mixture in suit- 

 able proportions. There are also two 

 fruit rots of the tomato — the blossom end 

 rot and the brown rot of green fruit. 

 The first is probably due almost wholly 

 to drought and can in most cases be 



prevented by suitable cultivation and, in 

 very dry weather, irrigation. Some varie- 

 ties are less subject to this trouble than 

 others. Seed from susceptible plants 

 should not be used. The brown rot of 

 green fruit is due to excess of moisture. 

 As yet no remedy can be suggested. 



Eggplant Diseases. — There are several 

 serious diseases of the eggplant, but the 

 exact nature of the more important ones 

 has not yet been determined and prac- 

 tical remedial measures cannot yet be 

 recommended. 



Blight of Cucumbers, Muskmelon and 

 Watermelon. — All the plants of this class 

 suffer from a leaf blight or mildew, which 

 is a very serious d'isease. Much good 

 can be done by spraying with bordeaux 

 mixture. Spraying should commence be- 

 fore the plants begin to run and should 

 be repeated every week or. if the weather 

 is dry, every ten days until the crop is 

 harvested. All plants must be treated, 

 whether affected or not, and there should 

 be no affected, untreated fields near by. 

 Bordeaux containing 3 pounds copper 

 sulphate and 6 pounds of quick-lime in 

 each 50 gallons of water is recommend- 

 ed. Where conditions are not favorable 

 to_ the grovv^th of the plants it probably 

 will not pay to spray. There are some 

 other causes for the failure of melons 

 besides blight, but these are not yet well 

 understood. 



Bean Diseases. — Beans suffer from a 

 pod rot for which bordeaux mixture is 

 recommended together with rotation of 

 crops, selection_ of seed from unaffected 

 plants and soaking of seed in some fungi- 

 cide before planting. There is also a 

 bean mildew formin? a whitish ^rowth 

 on the leaves. This is easily combatted 

 by the use of bordeaux mixture. 



Leaf Spot of Celery. — This is a serious 

 trouble. Spraying of the plants with bor- 

 deaux or ammoniacal copper carbonate 

 should begin in the seedbed and be re- 

 peated in the field to prevent the occur- 

 rence of the disease. 



Cocoa. 



The world's cocoa trade amounted to 

 143,231,605 kilograms in 1905 and 149,020,695 

 kilograms in 1906. Of this amount Cuba 

 contributed 1,792,944 kilograms in 1905 and 

 2,475,692 in 1906. Brazil is the largest 

 producer, her output in 1906 being 25,135,- 

 307 kilograms. It will continue to hold first 

 place, as it is easily able to largely increase 

 its present cocoa production. The United 

 S'tates is still the greatest consumer of 

 cocoa, the consumption in 1906 having been 

 37,654,473 kilos. 



The growers in Florida have realized 

 that to compete with the Californians 

 they must raise the seedless oranges, and 

 they have been for several years pre- 

 paring for it. They now have a Florida- 

 grown seedless orange just as good as 

 the California production, says Col. Louis 

 Harrison, an ora nge grow er of that state. 



Experiments in growing sweet pota- 

 toes from slips direct from potatoes and 

 from vine cuttings from potatoes, also 

 the_ product of vine cuttings, ' showed 

 an increase in the crop of something like 

 350 per cent, in favor of the direct slip. 



