Abstract

The diseases of Sugarcane may be broadly classified according to their origin under the following heads: (1) Fungus diseases. (2) Bacterial diseases. (3) Virus diseases. (4) Physiological diseases. As usual, fungus diseases out-number diseases of other origin and the number of fungi recorded on sugarcane aggregates over 200 which constitutes a record for any one single species in cultivation by man. Fortunately, only a small fraction of this vast number causes any disease of economic importance and of this small number not all are let free by wise Nature to appear in one and the same part of the globe where sugarcane is grown. There are over two dozen parasitic diseases on record in India but it is not possible even to make a passing mention of all of them in the purview of a short paper and I would therefore confine my attention to the more important diseases of sugarcane occurring in the Madras Presidency.

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