78 CENTRAL AMERICAN RUBBER TREE. 



for remote localities where the carrying in of heavy machinery and 

 the bringing" out of bulky products would destroy the profits. 



Unless combined with other crops, the long- period of waiting tends 

 to make rubber planting difficult and unpopular for individuals with 

 small capital; but the same dela}^ also increases the risk of larger 

 enterprises because the productive resources of an estate remain 

 longer in uncertainty, and the proof of the ability and efficiency 

 of the field management must be deferred. In other industries, 

 like coffee and sugar, such facts come much more quickly to the sur- 

 face. This objection is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that 

 the capital required to plant, cultivate, and harvest a given area in 

 rubber is less than with most other crops. Nevertheless, until rubber 

 culture has emerged somewhat from the experimental stage its great- 

 est expansion should be expected to take place not in new regions, 

 but as an adjunct to industries already established. This is preemi- 

 nently true of the recently developed rubber industry of the British 

 East Indies, and it is in the same way that rubber culture is first to be 

 encouraged in Porto Rico, Hawaii, and the Philippines. Experi- 

 mental plantings by residents of all promising regions can be made 

 with little expense to individuals, and with little danger of loss on 

 large investments. Landowners will wish to know whether their 

 estates will produce rubber, and will be repaid for their trouble by 

 having seed available for further planting as soon as their trees reach 

 maturity. 



SECURITY OF INVESTMENTS IN RUBBER PLANTATIONS. 



The possibility of large returns is a powerful attraction to invest- 

 ors, and often renders them blind to the equal or greater possibility 

 of loss. The difficulties attendant upon the development of a new 

 industry are seldom attacked until somebody has been persuaded that 

 it will yield a fortune more easily than older lines of activity. The 

 difficulties are, however, commonly much greater than at first antici- 

 pated, and, although persistence may finally justify the effort, the first 

 estimates have to be revised in the light of practical experience. As 

 alread}^ explained, not all rubber trees yield even 2 pounds of rubber; 

 the trees will thrive where they will not produce rubber; climatic 

 conditions are uncertain; labor is not always available; the cost of 

 collecting cultivated rubber will probably be greater than for the wild 

 rubber; quality and prices vary; managers may be incompetent or 

 dishonest; and many other circumstances may conspire to prevent the 

 realization of the investor's hopes. The large profits calculated from 

 rubber culture on theoretical grounds have not prevented some estates 

 from proving a total loss, and do not render rubber culture a more 

 secure field of investment than other agricultural enterprises. A 

 large margin of normal profits may lessen the danger of actual loss 



