r H E CUBA R E \" I E W 



PCRTO RICANS VISIT CUBA 



THEIR INTERESTING INVESTIGATIONS AND WHAT THEY HA\'E DISCO\' 



ERED — Cuba's most serious orange troubles 



Some officials of the Porto Rico Agri- 

 cultural Experiment Station s;)tnt the two 

 months of June and July, I'.HO, in Cuba 

 stiiciying the cane inseccs and planting 

 methods, their expenses being borne by 

 some of the sugar planters of Porto Rico. 

 Their report of the results of their visit 

 and examinations is given m the report 

 of the station for 1910 just issued. It 

 says : 



"The main objects of the visit were to 

 study the cane insect and to obtain, if 

 possible, parasites of the Lachnosterna 

 beetle found in Porto Rican canes. Cuba, 

 no doubt, has this same beetle, but only 

 two specimens were found, one in the 

 collection at Santiago de las \'egas and 

 one in the Gundlach collection at Habana. 

 }^lany of the planters recognized the beetle 

 from descriptions given and all stated that 

 their flight in the district of ^layaguez, 

 P. R. The flight of this beetle was the 

 same in all parts of Cuba Wsited — San- 

 tiago de Cuba, Habana, Ceballos, Cien- 

 fuegos and ^Nlanzanillo. This seem.s a 

 little strange, as in Porto Rico we have 

 the ;Ma3-aguez flight in ^larch, April and 

 ^lay. v.hile the Guanica flight is during 

 'Slay. June. July. August and a part of 

 October. 



"Cuban methods of planting are ver^- 

 ditterent from those practiced in Porto 

 Rico. On new lands the wood is cut 

 and burned. The canes are planted in 

 rows as closely as possible : no holes are 

 dug. no plowing done, and no stumps re- 

 moved. The fire kills all the weed seeds, 

 and the first crop comes on very quickly 

 and does not need much, if any. culti- 

 vation. 



"When canes are cut and rattoons com- 

 mence to come up, the trash is pulled 

 away from around the stool, and after a 

 certain length of time placed back again, 

 the trash protecting the ground, so that 

 in a veri' few- weeks they have a chance 

 to grow. Although this is not the wa}- 

 all cane is grown in Cuba, it is the usual 

 practice of virgin lands. Often after the 

 first year the cane fields become infested 

 with Johnson grass, which is very difficult 

 to get rid of. This is one of the plants 

 whose introduction into Porto Rico must 

 be avoided. There is one serious draw- 

 back to this system of cropping, and that 

 is that the accumulation of so much trash 

 makes an ideal place for insects and fungi 

 to breed. An examination of the trash 

 showed a great amount of animal life 

 and fungi, especially root fungi. The Cu- 



ban fields wb.ich ha\e l.ieen in cane a num- 

 ber of years are full of root fungus. The 

 trash was full of canes, which showed tiiat 

 they had been killed by the West Indian 

 rind rot. One reason why Cuba has not 

 had a severe outbreak of diseases is that 

 when the lands become infested they are 

 left, and virgin lands, or lands which 

 have been lying idle for a number of 

 3-ears, are planted. 



"The cane insects of Cuba are about the 

 same as those of Porto Rico. Canes were 

 seen which had been eaten by the moth 

 borer, shot-hole borer, and the weevil 

 borer. These insects were more abundant 

 in the Cuban fields than in tlie cane fields 

 here. There seem to be two reasons for 

 this : One is that some years not all the 

 crop is harvested, and the other is that the 

 Cubans cut their canes too high, some- 

 times leaving from l}ti to o inch stubs. 

 This seems a very poor practice, as the 

 planter loses a certain amount of sugar : 

 also, the stalks or pieces of cane make 

 ideal places for fungi and insects to obtain 

 a start. In many fields stools examined 

 showed that the stubs of cane liad been 

 destro^-ed in some cases by fungi, and 

 others showed that insects had cleaned up 

 the canes, as the^- were, at the time of 

 examination, full of fiber and the cocoons 

 of the cane weevil. On some of the 

 estates visited these conditions did not 

 prevail. They were cultivating their 

 canes, planting legumes between the rows, 

 testing systems of planting, and in some 

 places irrigating. At these estates the 

 canes looked remarkabh" well, and the 

 tonnage was far above the average Cuban 

 crop 



"Cuba's most serious orange troubles 

 seem to be the extended drought which 

 comes during the winter months and the 

 small weevils which scar the fruits. After 

 the first rains in the spring the trees 

 blossom and the weevils appear. The 

 scarring is done b3- several species. A 

 number of these beetles were collected. 

 and the planters stated that all of them 

 injured the fruit. A number of specimens 

 were seen eating the 3-oung fruit of the 

 second blossoming. The fruit of the first 

 blossoming was ver^- badly scarred. Xot 

 very much scale was observed, as the 

 groves visited were protected by the bene- 

 ficial fungi, which were in great abun- 

 dance. Cuba apparently has not as strong 

 trade winds as Porto Rico, and for this 

 reason alone the scale would not be as 

 bad. Another reason why Cuba does not 



