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Prevention of Disease and Pests. 



The Department of Agriculture lias now a staff of 

 Scientific Officers who are investigating the causes of 

 disease and experimenting with methods of prevention and 

 cure. 



All efficient measures for the preservation of health 

 rest upon exact knowledge of the causes of disease and the 

 effects they produce in their victims, and we have now an 

 immense number of instances of accurate tracing by ob- 

 servation of the cause of plant diseases. 



These have been accompanied by experiment, and it 

 needs no argument to convince anyone in the least ac- 

 quainted with inductive science that experiment is as essen- 

 tial as observation. During the past twenty years, the dis- 

 coveries in plant doctoring have made almost a revolution 

 in agriculture, though this is seen more in Europe and 

 America than in tropical countries. 



The general laws of sanitation for plants do not differ 

 to any great extent from those laid down for man and 

 animals. They consist in the removal and destruction by 

 burning of all dead plants and dead parts of plants, the 

 prevention of conditions which favour the progress of the 

 disease, and the isolation by means of trenches of plants 

 whose roots are diseased. 



These methods cannot be adopted without an intelligent 

 watching for the appearance of disease. And the import- 

 ance of a stitch in time is in nothing more evident than in 

 the fight against plant diseases. 



A case was brought to my notice of an outbreak of a 

 caterpillar which had taken some time to entirely destroy 

 all leaves on the "belukar" adjoining a rubber clearing, and 

 only when the caterpillars, which were in immense num- 

 bers, had been driven to eat the rubber was any action 

 taken. 



The aid of the technical experts of the Department of 

 Agriculture should be sought as soon as any pest is ob- 

 served, but the destruction of as many of the caterpillars, 

 insects, larvae, cocoons, etc., which can be found should be 

 at once put in hand. 



Every properly equipped estate should possess the 

 means of combating as early as possible all diseases and 

 pests, and should possess implements for pruning back the 

 branches of big trees. For this purpose handy machines 

 arc made at the cost of a few dollars which easily cut at 



