THE CUBA REVIEW. 



25 



fectly healthy so far as I could tell, while 

 the remaining 85 all had the beginning bud- 

 rot, i. e., the disease at the base of the 

 leaves and swords, but not a single case had 

 yet any signs of the rot in the center of the 

 crown or cabbage. How do I know this is 

 budrot at all? Because when I began my 

 notes on the grove there were 175 trees 

 in all, of which 17 were rotted at the heart, 

 the well-known form of budrot. These 

 rotted ones were all cut down. During the 

 next seven months 34 more trees which had, 

 when I first began, the beginning of budrot 

 at the base of the leaves only, became 

 rotted to the very heart. Because, also, I 

 have seen a tree, one of several, bearing 25 

 or 30 healthy green leaves with no appear- 

 ance of yellowing, and about 16 spikes con- 

 taining in all more than 100 nuts, and 4 or 

 5 green swords, but with one spike which 

 had dropped all of its nuts (these were 

 about two inches in diameter). The center 

 of the crown was perfectly healthy. It was 

 determined that the tree was diseased at the 

 base of the one spike which was minus its 

 nuts. This spike with its subtending leaf 

 was removed, but no care was taken to dis- 

 infect the adjacent portions of the tree. In 

 two weeks the other spikes began to lose 

 their nuts until the tree held scarcely 30 

 nuts. Twenty-one leaves were removed one 

 by one from this standing tree, and the 

 disease could be plainly seen at the leaf 

 bases, and at the bases of the spikes which 

 were losing their nuts. In this case the dis- 

 ease had not yet reached the central leaves, 

 but observe that in many cases in which 

 I found the rot to be in the center this 

 condition was nearly always preceded by 

 a gradual shedding of the nuts, and the 

 progress of the disease at the base of the 

 leaves. Moreover, in the case of some trees 

 which had healthy central leaves, but whose 

 nuts were gradually failling, I have removed 

 all the lower leaves and spikes up to as 

 high as the lowest healthy-appearing sword, 

 thus leaving three or four green swords and 

 six or seven upright only half-opened green 

 leaves. I pruned the trees in this way and 

 left just an advancing margin of the rot. 

 This infected the healthy sword and in the 

 course of a few days it split and discolored, 

 wilted flower spike emeregd instead of a 

 healthy white one. I left this 'diseased 

 flower spike with the diseased tissues for a 

 week or so and then removed the spike and 

 subtending leaf, but not disinfecting the 

 adjacent tissues. By a slit into the lower- 

 most remaining sword it was seen to be 

 perfectly healthy. In the course of a week 

 it, too, had turned to a chocolate brown. 

 Thus if left the disease would gradually 

 spread from the outside to the inner and 

 softer tissues of the heart which would 

 succumb rapidly to the disintegrating action. 

 Budrot in its beginning appears as water- 

 soaked areas varying in size from tiny spots 

 to places 7 or 8 inches in length at the base 

 of the leaves or spikes or swords, or on the 



upper part of the trunk itself, spreading into 

 the fibrous and moist "strainer" through to 

 the next inner leaf. The progress of the 

 disease in these hard leaf base tissues is 

 slow, but in the soft central leaf tissues it 

 is very rapid. 



From this brief sketch of the symptoms 

 and progress of the budrot disease it would 

 seem as though we might more rationally 

 proceed with methods of treatment. For the 

 present I shall leave the methods with the 

 workers themselves. I wish them first to 

 verify the truth of the above observations, 

 for there are many that will doubt if I am 

 working with budrot at all. It may be de- 

 sirable to' add here that my studies have 

 largely been carried on in the tops of the 

 trees, and are not incomplete observations 

 made from the ground, or by the unsatis- 

 factory way of felling the trees. I have 

 ascended ttie healthy and diseased trees, 

 have noted the condition of the tree when 

 in perfect health, when losing a few nuts, 

 when showing discolored flower spikes, and 

 when rotten to the very heart ; have spent 

 hours at the summit of a single tree remov- 

 ing and studying the leaves and spikes one 

 by one, until the center was reached, some- 

 times healthy and sometimes in a putrid 

 condition, and have spent days and weeks 

 simply studying pruning, inoculating and 

 treating in various ways. 



In the light of this knowledge what is 

 the value of application of chemicals to the 

 crown of the tree? They cannot be made 

 to reach all the infected parts. Of what 

 value is flaming? The heat cannot reach- 

 all the diseased parts unless it is of such a 

 strength as to kill a tree, and drainage need 

 not be considered as it has essentially to 

 do with the soil conditions, a matter per- 

 fectly appropriate in considerations of the 

 general health of the tree, but entirely irrel- 

 evant in a study of the budrot. 



Not only is applying chemicals to the tree 

 uncertain as a remedy, but unsatisfactory in 

 other ways. If weak chemicals are used the 

 diseased tree may pursue its own way and 

 put forth new leaves and new flowers, and 

 set good nuts, as it often does, although 

 diseased. If strong chemicals are used there 

 is danger of poisoning the trees and making 

 a bad matter worse. In regard to flaming, 

 it is practically impossible to control the 

 amount of heat applied, so that it is usually 

 too strong or. not strong enough, but, as I 

 have remarked above, it is useless anyway. 

 If the heat applied is little the diseased 

 tree may, as in case of the use of the chem- 

 ical, put forth new leaves, new flower spikes 

 and set good nuts in spite of the treatment, 

 a thing it often 'does to my knowledge. 

 Moreover, flaming is to be studiously avoided 

 for the reason that it chars the leaf base 

 and causes the old leaf or leaf base to hang 

 on indefinitely, furnishing lodging places for 

 debris, and holding too much moisture, ex- 

 actly a condition to further the interests of 

 the budrot. These recommended methods of 



