4 BULLETIN 829, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of transmission was not present or at least not abundant in this 
region, it has spread very little. At Santiago de las Vegas it was 
found on plants recently imported from Louisiana and from Tucuman, 
Argentina. The latter plants had come originally from Java. The 
disease had spread from these plants to an adjoining field of the native 
Crystalina cane. In view of this demonstration of its ability to 
spread at Santiago, it is very fortunate that the diseased plants were 
early observed and destroyed. A slight infection has been found at 
Mercedes, also as the result of a recent importation. 
Infected cuttings have been received in both Porto Rico and Cuba 
from Tucuman, Argentina, but to what extent the disease is prevalent 
in Argentina has not been learned. 
Last year the mosaic disease was found in abundance at La Romana 
and the city of Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo, and less plentifully 
at Samana, La Vega, Monte Cristi, and Bonao. 1 Lastly it was dis- 
covered at St. Croix, Virgin Islands, on cane imported from Porto 
Rico. 1 
DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES. 2 
The presence of the mosaic disease in the United States was first 
suspected when an agent of the Office of Sugar-Plant Investigations 
of the United States Department of Agriculture discovered young 
diseased cane in Porto Rico from seed cane imported from Louisiana. 
The plants were so young at the time that secondary infection seemed 
improbable, and it was assumed that the seed pieces were diseased 
when shipped from Louisiana. Accordingly another agent of the 
same office visited Louisiana and on July 7, 1919, confirmed the 
presence of mosaic there. The State authorities were apprised of this 
important disclosure, and the Government agent made a hurried 
reconnoissance of the Gulf States, which revealed the fact that the 
disease was already quite widely distributed there. 
On account of the infectious nature of the malady and the fact that 
it has caused severe losses in other cane countries, a complete sur- 
vey of the Southern States was immediately instituted to determine 
the location of all infested areas and, if possible, to trace the original 
importation of the disease and the course of its subsequent spread. 
Infested areas have been well delimited. The disease has been found 
by inspectors of the United States Department of Agriculture in 
Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi (fig. 1). It 
is most abundant in Louisiana, as would be expected. There the 
river district is already badly infested. As far north as Angola, in 
West Feliciana Parish, several fields in a large plantation were found 
i Stevenson, John A. The mottling disease of sugar cane. In Jour. Dept. Agr. and Labor, Porto Rico 
in press). 
* Thanks are due to Mr. W. G. Taggart, vice director of the University of Louisiana Sugar Cane Experi- 
ment Station, and to Dr. C W. Edgerton, pathologist, Louisiana Experiment Station, for court osios 
extended to the writer and suggestions facilitating the survey in Louisiana. 
