BEGINNINGS OF RUBBER CULTURE. 13 



and profits. The opening of large plantations under untried condi- 

 tions in Porto Rico and the Philippines is advocated, and the investing 

 public is assured, in effect, that the returns from rubber culture are 

 to be so great that the exercise of ordinary agricultural skill and 

 business caution is unnecessary, though the fact remains that a large 

 measure of both is likely to be required if the numerous unsolved 

 problems of the new industry are to be overcome without ruinously 

 expensive experiments. 



THE STATUS OF CASTILLA RUBBER CULTURE. 



Many current discussions turn upon the question whether rubber 

 culture is still in the experimental stage. This is the most frequent 

 objection of those who lack confidence in rubber culture, and naturally 

 arouses a strong protest from those who insist that rubber planting is 

 the safest and most remunerative branch of agriculture. 



It is true that rubber culture is no longer a new idea, since it was 

 considered by the Government of British India as early as 1872, and 

 Castilla was introduced into India in 1876. The Hon. Matias Romero, 

 formerly minister from Mexico to the United States, also began to 

 write on the subject of rubber culture in 1872. But the success of 

 rubber culture can scarcely be demonstrated from the experiments of 

 twenty or thirty years ago, since the results of few, if any, of these 

 appeared sufficiently promising to justify their continuation. The 

 plantation of Sefior Romero was located- in the Soconusco district of 

 the State of Chiapas, in southern Mexico, and was early abandoned. 

 The small plot of trees visited by the writer at La Zacualpa, some 

 60 miles northwest from Tapachula (see frontispiece), was probably 

 planted as a result of the interest aroused by Senor Romero in this 

 vicinity. The trees at La Zacualpa were set, however, as shade for 

 cacao, and not as an independent culture. This was not the only 

 experiment with rubber planting in the same region, but it seems to 

 have been the only one which resulted favorably enough to call for 

 the further investment of capital in the commercial production of 

 rubber. 



There have been, and still are, three general opinions regarding 

 rubber culture. The first is that rubber can be produced at a profit 

 wherever the trees will grow. The very frequent failure to secure 

 rubber in paying quantities from planted trees gave rise to the second 

 opinion that rubber could not be produced in cultivation. But these 

 ideas are beginning to give place to the third and more rational view 

 that rubber, like other agricultural crops, can be produced profitably 

 only under favorable conditions, or, in other words, rubber culture 

 may be said to have reached the stage when it can no longer be indis- 

 criminately advocated nor indiscriminately condemned. If no other 

 evidence were obtainable, the planted trees visited in Soconusco would 



