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THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



THE COCOANUT INDUSTRY IN CUBA. 



Cocoanuts Dying of Bud Rot and the Industry Seems Doomed — Character of 



Disease Investigations and Former Attempt at Government Inspection — 



Present Work and Views of the Cuban Agricultural Experiment 

 Station — Possibilities of the Industry. 



SI'KCIAM.Y WIUTTI-.N I-OK TIIH rlM\ KKVIKW I'.V MAItY TR.\CY IIOUNK.' 



During recent years cocoanut growing in Cuba. a> a commercial industry, has 

 been limited to a few regions at the east end of the island, the only important 

 point of export for cocoanuts being Baracoa. This narrowing of area is chiefly due 

 to a disease known as the heart rot or bud rot, which has Israel ically ruined the 

 cocoanut groves in the middle and western parts of the island. Around Baracoa this 

 disease has recently made serious inroads, and competent authorities are convinced that 

 unless the bud rot can be checked the whole industry is doomed. 



This is a serious outlook. Sr. S"ini6n. the chief buyer of cocoanuts in Baracoa, 

 states that the monthly production of nuts in the surrounding region, which might at 

 one time have been roughly estimated at throe millions (including those used for 

 feeding pigs, those sent to the oil mill, etc.), is now reduced to two millions, and 

 is still dropping. This represents a money loss to the region of about ten thousand 

 dollars per month, comparing the present with the best days of the industry. 



The diminulion is in spite of the fact that new cocales (cocoanut groves) have 



, I'piiroduced by periiii.sslon of the Estaoioii Cciitral Agroiioniica (ic Culia. 



Two cocoanut trees which have died from the bud rot. and an affected tree, which afterwards 

 died. When the picture was taken the leaves of the living tree were beginning to turn yellow. 



• Mrs. Home is the wife cf Wm. T. Home of the staff of the Cuban agricultural station, especially 

 assigned to investigate the cocoanut disease at Baracoa. 



