28 



It appears to me that there is little hope now for ascertaining 

 anything more in regard to shipments and that we will have to be 

 content with continual inspection in the field. You know that now we 

 get into the field frequently ourselves. The inspectors are on special 

 work but at the same time they will report anything found on citrus. 



Thus I believe we are at least in a good position to protect 

 ourselves against the spread in Cuba should it by any chance be 

 here or get in at any time. 



. Letter from Wilmon Newell to J. R. Johnston, Jan. 16, 1917. 



A few weeks ago at Leesburg, Florida, I met a representative of 

 the Southern Fruit Auction Company of Chicago. This representative 

 was very enthusiastic over citrus conditions in Cuba and stated that 

 he had made several trips there within the last few months for the 

 purpose of buying fruit. Among other things he said in substance 

 that the grapefruit groves^at Pinar del Rio, in the western part of 

 Cuba, were going back and were apparently suffering . severely from 

 some cause, the nature of which he did not know. 



I am merely passing this information to you for what it may be 

 worth. Possibly you are already familiar with the conditions referred 

 to at Pinar del Rio and know to what extent our information is 

 authentic. It occurs to us that it is a bare possibility the trouble in 

 question might be citrus canker, but our informant did not have 

 sufficient information which would indicate whether or not there was 

 a probability of this disease being present. 



Letter from J. E. Johnston to Wilmon NeweU, Feb. 25, 1917. 



In regard to your letter of Jan. 16, I may say that the infor- 

 mation you have received from the visitor to Cuba respecting the 

 conditions of the Pinar del Rio groves to be absolutely incorrect. 



There are in the Province of Pi|iar del Rio some abandoned 

 groves but one cannot properly report them as going back from 

 disease. It is difficult for one ignorant of the conditions in Cuba to 

 give reliable reports of conditions here. Many groves of the Island 

 have been abandoned not because the trees would not grow well or bear 

 good fruit, but entirely owing to the discouragement of the ovmer 

 from lack of capital, uncongenial surroundings, and ignorance of 

 the first principles of obtaining a living from a piece of land. 



As I have before reported we have visited and still maintain our 

 visits to all the districts of the Island, and can state positively that 

 neither abandoned groves nor groves well cared for are suffering 

 from the citrus canker. 



The only possibility, and it is a real possibility, is that some 

 person not m the citrus business has a few citrus trees in his yard 

 and that these are infected. Thousand of farms and yards in the 

 cities have a few trees, and we have not been able to visit aU these. 

 What we have done and are still doing is to visit all the "groves" 



