Plant Sanitation. 



26 



[Jan. 1908. 



selecting immune varieties. Workers in the breeding of improved varieties have 

 long been endeavouring to obtain definite information in respect to disease resist- 

 ance, and it would now appear that evidence has been obtained by the experi- 

 mentalists of Cambridge University, which should make it possible to breed with 

 certain varieties of cereals immune to certain diseases. Experiments have this 

 year been laid out in Barbadoes in respect to the breeding of sugar-canes, with the 

 view of ascertaining whether similar methods may be adopted for the production 

 of disease-resistant varieties of sugar-cane. 



(5) Plants from disease-affected localities should be as far as possible 

 avoided for planting purposes, as it has often resulted in the introduction of new 

 fungoid diseases. Most of the West India Islands now have laws preventing the 

 importation of plants from countries known to be affected by disease, and most 

 plants are disinfected at the port of entry. 



(6) Good seed for planting purposes should always be chosen, and it need 

 only be mentioned that much disease of sugar-cane has in the past been due to the 

 choice of bad plants, to impress upon planters the necessity of using only carefully 

 chosen seed. — Agricultural Neivs of the Imperial Department of Agriculture for 

 the West Indies, Vol. VI. No. 143, October 19th, 1907. 



