6 Guayule. 



mariola, or other plant. The possibility that it came from the South is, 

 however, not excluded. Peter Martyr (1569; published in 1830), Saha- 

 gun (1529), and Herrera (149 2-1 5 2 6) all speak of balls made of rubber 

 made from latex trees. 1 



There can therefore be little doubt that, in common with the manu- 

 facture of mescal, extraction of fibers, and like primitive industries, the 

 making of rubber balls from the guayule, just as from latex plants, 

 antedates the invasion of Mexico by the Spaniard. It may be mentioned 

 in passing that the method of extracting the rubber as above noted is 

 analogous to the only widely used modern method of obtaining the crude 

 rubber on a large scale, namely, by a purely mechanical process. The 

 rationale of this will be seen beyond. In this connection a recent dis- 

 covery of a piece of rubber which is undoubtedly of ancient origin on an 

 old aboriginal village-site in Arizona is of peculiar interest. Of this 

 discovery the following account is furnished me by Prof. R. H. Forbes: 



The lump of rubber, a portion of which I recently handed you, was found in 

 December (or thereabouts), 1909, at the west end of the Santa Cruz Reservoir and 

 Land Company's dam, 14 miles west of Sasco, Ariz. Mr. C. O. Austin, who was 

 present, states that this ball of rubber was contained in a small olla with articles of 

 stone belonging to the older prehistoric ruins of this country. The find was made 

 at about 3 feet below the general surface which was formed by the off-wash of an 

 adjacent low mountain. No traces of houses on the present level of the land, 

 according to Mr. Austin, were visible. One other ball of rubber was found here, 

 and is now in Col. W. C. Greene's collection at Cananea. I regard this find as 

 genuine, as Mr. Austin is familiar with Salt River Valley ruins and his statements 

 are confirmed by others. 



Microscopic examination of the specimen to which Professor Forbes 

 refers throws doubt on the view that it is guayule rubber, but a final 

 statement can not at present be made. 



A record of this kind would be incomplete without reference to the 

 use of guayule as a fuel. On account of its resin content, the plant 

 burns with a fierce, smoky flame, after the fashion of "fat pine;" so 

 that whenever it was available it was invariably used as a fuel for the 

 crude Mexican adobe smelters, ruins of which are frequently seen in the 

 mining districts. In this way thousands of acres have been depleted 

 of their guayule, a wasteful process which was quickly stopped when 

 the value of the plant became known. It can scarcely be doubted that 

 many peculiarities of local distribution within restricted regions are due 

 to the pulling of the guayule for fuel. Thus a large smelter and a num- 

 ber of roasting furnaces were in operation at Cedros, 2 the head fraction 

 of the hacienda of that name lying to the west of Mazapil, for a term 

 of years, and this circumstance is often referred to by the peons to 

 explain the absence of guayule in places where it would naturally be 

 expected. The case is analogous to the use of walnut for fuel and fence- 

 rails in the early days in the eastern United States. 



1 Jumelle, 1903, quotes these authors at length. 



2 According to Juan Robles, whose duty it was, in 1856, to weigh the shrub 

 as it came into the fundicion at Cedros, guayule was paid for at the rate of 18 

 centavos per carga (6 arrobas = 7o kilos), or about 17 pounds for 1 cent (gold)! 

 The women on Cedros burned guayule in their bread ovens as late as 1894 (fide G. R. 

 Fleming). Guayule shrub now fetches 150 pesos the ton. 



