TH E CUBA REVIEW 



23 



BUDROT OF COCONUT PLANTS. 



United States Department of Agriculture — Bureau of Plant Industry — Lab- 

 oratory of Plant Pathology. 



Washington, D.C., Sept. 16, 1908. 



Editor The Cuba Review, 



New York City. 



Dear Sir: Your letter of the 9th inst. 

 has been received, and in reply I would 

 say that while I am not prepared to 

 give full recommendations as to a meth- 

 od of treatment for the coconut bud- 

 rot disease, yet, from my two years 

 studies in Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad and 

 Demarara, I have received several ideas 

 which it seems advisable to bring imme- 

 diately to the notice of the many plant- 

 ers who are attempting to save their 

 profitable coconut groves from total 

 destruction. 



It would appear that both the scien- 

 tific workers and the planters use little 

 patience in determining the early symp- 

 toms of the disease. The general con- 

 sensus of opinion is that the early signs 

 of budrot are the falling over of the 

 central folded and undeveloped leaves. 



and, as a sort of secondary considera- 

 tion, the premature falling of the nuts 

 and browning and falling of the leaves. 

 The idea foremost in mind when speak- 

 ing of budrot is that the center of the 

 crown of the tree, or the heart, or 

 cabbage, as it is variously spoken of, is 

 affected by a vile-smelling, soft putre- 

 faction of the tissues. Various methods 

 are recommended to cure the trees of 

 this condition. One writer advises ap- 

 plying copper sulphate to the crown 

 until the tree is cured, but not explain- 

 ing the effect of the copper sulphate so 

 as to enable the worker to apply it in- 

 telligently, and to know whether it is 

 doing any good or not. So the chances 

 are that he would keep on applying the 

 chemical until the tree was dead, for, 

 as a matter of fact, copper sulphate 

 could cure a diseased tree only under 

 very limited conditions. The same crit- 

 icism holds true for any other chemical 

 that has been recommended for appli- 

 cation to the crown of the coconut 



(Reproduced by permission of the Estacion Central Agronomica de Cuba.) 

 Cocoanut tree hopelessly affected by the budrot. The youngest, undeveloped leaf held out by 

 the man in the top is rotten, and the lower leaves are turning yellow. Stumps of dead trees are 

 shown each side. 



