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Prevention' of Disease and Pests. 
. T !*? Department of Agriculture has 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- 
co\eiies in plant doctoring have made almost a revolution 
m 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 bv 
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 adojAed 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 destrov 
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 anv 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 manv of the caterpillars 
insects, larvae, cocoons, etc., which can be found should be 
at once put in band. 
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 
are made at the cost of a few dollars which easily cut at 
