31 
allow any banana sprouts to be brought into this Territory, and I 
would recommend that a regulation be immediately passed pro- 
hibiting such shipments with a proviso that in case of the desira- 
bility of importing a new variety of banana, said importation shall 
be subject to the approval of the Superintendent of Entomology 
and propagated under his personal supervision for at least six 
months or a year. This would also apply to other plants and 
fruit trees. 
Our banana industry is practically free from pests and diseases 
and great care should be taken in preventing any new diseases, 
which are at times very difficult to detect, from entering the 
Islands. It seems to me that if we are to extend our banana in- 
dustry we have ample material of the Bluefields banana to gradu- 
ally do this and if a shortage now exists the Chinese banana, 
which has given good satisfaction .on the coast, could be tem- 
porarily and later on substituted by the Bluefields. 
Awaiting your action in this matter, I beg to remain, 
Very truly yours, 
Edw. ]\I. Ehrhorn, 
Superintendent of Entomology. 
BANANA DISEASE IN AMERICA AND CUBA. 
We reproduce below the articles on banana diseases by Dr. R. E. 
B. McKenny and Dr. Edwin F. Smith, of the United States De- 
l)artment of Agriculture, which appeared in the well-known 
American paper Science, and were referred to by a correspond- 
ent in our issue of June 7. 
the central american p.anana blight. 
By Dr. R. E. B. McKenny. 
In 1904 the writer made a trip through a number of farms in 
Costa Rica and in the Province of Bocas del Toro, Panama, for 
the purpose of investigating a serious banana disease reported by 
the planters during the two previous years. Since that time the 
disease has been more or less continuously studied by him. 
"The disease" or ''the blight," as it is commonly called by the 
planters, spreads rapidly. While in 1904 whole valley districts 
were free from the disease, there is now scarcely a single farm 
in the regions above mentioned that is not suffering from its 
ravages. The blight occurs in the Panama Canal Zone ; also, by 
report, on the Atlantic side of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guate- 
mala. The disease has been known for many years, but only 
within the last decade has it alarmed the planters. As early as 
