It was around the time that a variety of cane called Black Cheribon had been introduced and it was susceptible to the disease.
The plantations went into a crisis due to the disease and the director of the experimental station at Semarang known as Midden Java, Dr F. Soltwedel, conducted experiments and discovered that the cane was unaffected at higher altitudes and nurseries were maintained at a height and planting was done in the plains.
In 1895 Jan Derk Kobus imported the Indian variety Chunnee and crossed them with S. officinarum and obtained clones that were resistant to sereh but susceptible to a viral mosaic.
Gerharda Wilbrink also conducted crosses and produced various resistant clones including POJ2364.
This was then crossed by J. Jeswiet to produce POJ2878, the so-called Javan Wondercane that had high sugar yield and disease resistance.