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say 90,000 acres. Next year's planting, at a low estimate, will be 

 10,000 acres. In this total I have not included what "has been" 

 planted, but is no more. And I do not believe the entire area 

 mentioned above can be counted upon to become producing. 



In order to explain this I have to mention that it is estimated 

 that this area under rubber represents at least £6,000,000, that is 

 nominally invested in rubber plantations. A considerable part of 

 this money has never reached Mexico, but has been squandered 

 by promoters in America. A very large amount has also been 

 lost through the ignorance of many so-called planters and plan- 

 tation managers. 



RUBBER CULTIVATION IN THE EXPERIMENTAL STAGE. 



While I am willing to admit that rubber culture has passed the 

 experimental stage so far as the possibility of producing rubber 

 is concerned, it cannot be denied that in regard to proper 

 agricultural methods this industry is still in its undeveloped 

 childhood. 



It has been clearly demonstrated in the progress of many 

 agricultural industries, that very little advance is made before the 

 persons concerned have learned to appreciate the value of co- 

 operation for the purpose of comparing their individual experiences 

 and to take advantage of knowledge gained by previous experi- 

 ments. Among the rubber planters and plantation managers in 

 Mexico and CentralAmerica there is, however, no such co-operation 

 whatever. Everyone is satisfied that he has employed the right 

 methods of planting, although in most cases he started without 

 any previous experience. The correct methods are by no means 

 ascertained beyond any question of doubt at present. But if a 

 person visits a great number of plantations in different districts or 

 countries, he cannot fail to observe some of the advantages or 

 disadvantages of the various methods employed. 



We may be able to advance certain theories regarding planting 

 operations, we know that the rubber tree under certain conditions 

 will grow well, we maybe able to extract and prepare a certain 

 amou it of rubber from the trees, but we cannot yet say which method 

 of growing rubber will give the largest possible return, we do not 

 know whether the most rapid grower is the best producer, and in 

 regard to the manner of obtaining the rubber we still remain on 

 a very primitive footing. 



The experimental era of rubber culture, instead of being short 

 and inexpensive, is growing too long for these modern times and 

 it has certainly been unnecessarily costly. Where the experiments 

 should have been conducted on a small scale by persons specially 

 prepared to do this kind of work, the whole Castillo, planting 

 industry has been one colossal experiment in which millions of 

 money have been staked on the integrity, possible intelligence, 

 and probable good fortune of men, who in many instances have 

 lacked every experience of tropical planting, and in some cases 

 had not even been in the tropics before undertaking the manage- 

 ment of a plantation. Millions have thus been literally thrown 



