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Sugar-Cane in the West Indies . 
to rattoons. On the red soils in the highland districts this 
dwarfing of the rattoons, although to be noted here and there 
in the second crop, is not so general as on the black soils 
of the lowlands. It makes its appearance, however, to an 
increasing extent in the third and later crops, and finally 
leads to the throwing out of the fields. Locally, the red soils 
of the highlands are known as rattooning soils, while those 
of the lowlands, although giving very good first crops, are 
not regarded as specially suitable for a second crop. 
The comparative failure of rattoon crops was found on 
examination to be due, in most cases, to a definite root disease, 
some account of which is given in the following. 
i. Characters of the Disease. 
Apart from the peculiarities of the leaves of the dwarfed 
canes and their marked tendency to throw up shoots from 
the base, which have been already referred to, there are other 
characteristics to be observed on a closer examination. As 
a rule, a healthy cane sheds its old dry leaves as growth 
proceeds, but in those in question the leaf-sheaths of the dead 
lower leaves adhere firmly to the stem, being cemented 
thereto by a white, musty smelling, fungoid growth. Such 
canes can moreover be pulled out of the ground with ease, 
when they are seen to possess very few roots. They are 
-besides very much lighter in weight than healthy canes of 
the same size. On stripping off the dead leaf-sheaths at the 
base of the stem, it is found that most of the roots have 
either not developed or else have ceased to grow when about 
a i to i an inch in length, when they are brown in colour and 
corky to the feel. The rind of the cane immediately over 
the undeveloped roots is marked by brownish or blackish 
spots. Considerable force is required to remove the leaf-bases 
from the part of the stem covered by the soil and to clear 
the nodes, as the white fungoid growth referred to binds the 
whole into a solid mass. A portion of the lower part of 
a sugar-cane stem showing the abnormal development of the 
lower buds and the aborted roots is shown in Fig. 7, while in 
D d 
