69 



order to permit anything to grow under it, wide planting is neces- 

 sary, and this usually means a spreading low growth for the rubber 

 trees, generally considered undesirable, because it iiakes the ex- 

 traction of rubber difficult if it does not actually decrease the 



yield. 



Vanilla culture under Castilloa has also been suggested, and may 

 be worthy of consideration, since it is held that a period of dry- 

 ness and exposure to the sun is necessary for the proper ripening of 

 the pods. To successfully combine two or three cultures is, however, 

 a difficult matter, even when all are well known, but the supposed 

 practicability of such combinations has rested on ignorance of 

 important details. 



Several years ago the culture of Castilloa received a considera- 

 ble impetus from the recommendation of Dr. Daniel Morris, now 

 Imperial Commissioner of Agriculture for the British West Indies, 

 that Castilloa be used as shade for coffee and cacao in British 

 Honduras, and an estimated return was made of $5 per tree in 

 eight or ten years, or $125 per acre, to be repeated at intervals of 



five years. 



According to Dr. Carl Sapper, a German scientist very familiar 

 with Central America, this advice has been followed with disas- 

 trous results. He says : 



In fact, the developments thus far in the field of Castilloa culture show on the 

 average very little in the way of favourable results. Particularly does it seem to 

 have failed completely when it has been combined with other tree cultures in or- 

 der to lessen the exponses of opening rubber ptantatious. Thus, on the advice of 

 the well-known Eni^lish botanist, D. Morrris (then in Jamaica), rubber trees 

 were planted for shade in the coflfee plantation San Felipe, near El Cayo, in Bri- 

 tish Honduras, and the result was that these sh ide trees ruined the coffee, but did 

 not on the other hand themselves develop normally, because they were planted too 

 close. In other places, as in Tabasco, in the De;jartment of Pichucaleo, in Chia- 

 pas, and in Uhama (Department of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala) rubber trees were used 

 for shade on cacao plantations, but the cacao planters tell me that ule trees im- 

 pair the growth of the cacao an.l do further damage through the falling of the 

 leaves, so that they would much prefer to be rid of these shade trees if that were 

 practicible. In other instances, where the ule wai planted by itself, too close an 

 arrangement was chosen, so that the trees were impeded in development, and are 

 still after 12 years of existence mere tall, slender, unproductive poles, as at Los 

 Amates, Department Izabal, Guatemala, with only four yards of space." * 



It seems, however that Dr. Morris has a favourable report regard- 

 ing Castilloa as a shade tree for cacao, both in British Honduras 

 and in the West Indies, and his former advice was repeated before 

 the Agricultural Conference of the West Indies in 1901. He said : 



In 1883 I published an account of the Castilloa rubber tree of British Honduras 

 and the manner of extracting and curin- the rubber. At that time I recommended 

 that the e trees might be used as shade trees for cac u-. A trial was made sixteen 

 years ago on a cacao plantation on the Settee River, and I learn from a letter from 

 the Superintendent of the botanic garden at Helize, dated November 8 last, that 

 the rubber trees have answered admirably for this purpose. He writes: "At 

 Kendal on the Settee River the cac 10 plantations are thriving well. * * * Caa- 



* Der Tropenpflanzer. 



