THE CUBA REVIEW And Bulletin. 



19 



been constantly coming into bearing, so that, were it not for the bud rot, the produc- 

 tion would have increased. 



The cocoanut growers near Baracoa now became alarmed and appealed to Governor 

 Magoon to authorize an expert investigation of the disease and its possible remedies, and, 

 through this appeal, Mr. Wm..T. Home, of the Cuban Agricultural Experiment Station 

 (Estacion Central Agronomico de Cuba), was sent to Baracoa to study the conditions 

 there and see what could be done. 



Mr. Home had already made careful studies of the cocoanut bud rot, the depart- 

 ment of vegetable pathology of the experiment station having taken up the subject 

 in 1904. In the Primer Informe Anual of the station, issued in July, 1906, the disease 

 is reported on as follows : 



"Heart rot occurs in the region about Havana and is rf:ported to us from various 

 other localities ; probably no' part of the island is safe from it. The first sign is 

 when all the young nuts fall. Then the leaves slowly turn yellow, a young leaf in 

 the center is seen to be dead, and after this the other leaves die gradually, the ends 

 falling down against the trunk so that a tree dying of this disease can be recognized 

 from a distance. Various opinions have been expressed as to the cause of this 

 disease. Professor Earle,t in describing the same trouble from Jamaica, expressed 

 the opinion that it was a bacterial 'disease, and Dr. Erwin F. Smith,:i: bacteriologist in 

 the Department of Agriculture at Washington, and probably the most competent author- 

 ity on the bacterial diseases of plants, reached the same conclusion after some time 

 spent in studying the disease in various parts of Cuba in the spring of 1904. Final 

 proof, hovvever, is still lacking. 



The attempt to determine the organism causing the disease has been continued 

 since this report was written, and, although no absolutely conclusive results have 

 been obtained, Mr. Home, like Professor Earle and Dr. Smith, is confident of its 

 bacterial origin, which he expects to demonstrate in time. His attempts at finding a 

 cure for the trouble have convinced him, also, that there is little dependence to be 

 placed on any measure except that of a thorough sanitation of the groves, consisting 

 of the destruction by fire of all dead or hopelessly affected trees, and the disinfection 

 by fire of those showing the attack in its early stages. The call to' Baracoa has 

 given him an opportunity to begin an extensive test of this method, which has been 



Kepro'duced by permiission of the Estacion Central Agronomica de Cuba. ^i^v,,/, ^. h„ 



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

 the man in the top, is rotten, and the lower leaves are turning yellow. On each side of this tree 

 may be seen the stump of one already dead. 



t Erwin P Smith. Bud rot of the Cocoanut palm in the West Indies, Science, March 31, 1905; p. 500. 

 t P. S. Earle. Report on a trip to Jamaica, Journal N. Y. Botanical Garden, January, 1903: p. 4. 



