52 



THE COCO-NUT 



CHAP. 



half-a-dozen dying trees in the course of a walk of 

 several miles, and these I suppose were burned immedi- 

 ately afterward. The absolute extermination of a pest 

 is usually impossible, and the disease will probably 

 become epidemic again at some future time if given a 

 chance. But for the present it is practically harmless. 



The means by which bud rot was reduced to practical 

 harmlessness in La Laguna are the same which should 

 be taken wherever any epidemic must be fought. They 

 are three : 



1. Determining the most practical field measures. 



2. Securing legislation strong enough to ensure con- 

 certed and vigorous action. 



3. Educating the people. If any one of these is 

 more important than the others, it is the last. Printed 

 matter ought not to be relied upon to do this anywhere; 

 it is not convincing enough. The most of the villagers 

 of the Laguna coco-nut country cannot read at all, but 

 they would have had to be shown in the same way in 

 any case. 



America. — Bud rot is known in the West Indies 

 and on the American continent in various places. The 

 earliest dates which can definitely be placed on its 

 known presence are 1870 in Cuba, 1875-6 in Demerara, 

 1891 in Jamaica, 1889, with a probable report as early 

 as 1834, in Grand Cayman, and 1893 in Honduras. It 

 received no real study until the last decade, but has 

 recently received more attention here than in any 

 other part of the world. 



Cuba. — In Cuba it was considered dangerous enough 

 to demand the appointment of a commission for its 

 study in 1883; in 1901, Busck, an entomologist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, was sent to 

 investigate it. He was unable to make more than a 

 guess at the cause of the disease, but, irrespective of 

 the particular organism causing it, soundly advised the 

 destruction of all diseased material. Immediately after 

 this the Jamaican bud rot was reported by Earle as 

 bacterial. In 1904, Dr. Erwin Smith, the foremost 



