January i, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



115 



MEXICAN RUBBER PLANTING NOTES. 



The Ori/.aba Rubber I'lantation Co. (Chicago) some time 

 ago ordered 5000 I'arii rubber {Hevea) ' ' stumps ' ' from Ceylon 

 for their plantation "Chival," in Chiapas, Mexico. After 

 being 85 days t'/i route, when the stumps arrivc-d in Mexico 

 41S8 showed " perfect vitality," and were planted, all look- 

 ing well at last accounts. 



Isthmus Plantation Association of Mexico (Milwaukee, 

 Wisconsin) issue a series of " Views of Hacienda Del Corte " 

 which are most informing as giving an idea of the develop- 

 ment of a rubber estate, by pictures without many words. 

 The plantation is at Palomares, state of Oaxaca, and has on 

 it some rubber 6 years old. 



Montezuma Agency (Chicago), whose " Montezuma "plan- 

 tation, in Chiapas state, is being developed. Grijalva Land 

 and Coffee Co., Limited, have issued 6000 shares of stock, 

 one acre to be planted to rubber or other crops for each share 

 sold, and report 400 acres planted to rubber to date. 



The PLaya Vicente Rubber Plantation and Development 

 Q.i. (Sin Francisco) have published the annual inspection 

 report raada last spring by Dr. O. P. Jenkins, of Stanford 

 University. 



Batavia Company (Milwaukee, Wisconsin\ who are phintiiig 

 Castilloa rubber largely in Mexico, write to Thk I.ndia Ruhhkr 

 World: "We take considerable pride in our small group of 

 Pard and CearA rubber trees that we have growing on our planta- 

 tion, a few of which trees will produce .seed this year." 



RUBBER IN OTHER LANDS. 



The Philippine forestry department was represented at the 

 Ceylon rubber exhibition by Mr. Wallace J. Hutchinson. 

 He said to a Times of Ceylon reporter that opinion in the 

 Philippines had been in favor of planting Ceara, but he 

 thought that when he reported on his return the preference 

 would be given to Para, and that , Ceylon would become the 

 source of supply- for seeds. Mr. Hutchinson said that not 

 more than So acres had been planted to rubber in the Philiji- 

 pines. 



Mr. W. n. Johnson, for some years past director of agri- 

 culture in the Gold Coast Colony, has transferred his ser- 

 vices to the Mozambique Company, engaged in developing 

 a great concession in Portuguese East Africa. Mr. John- 

 son has paid special attention to developing an interest in 

 rubber planting in the Gold Coast, and it may be that he 

 will devote his efforts to work on similar lines in the new 

 field. Mr. Johnson is the author of a work on Parii rubber 

 reviewed some time ago in these pages. 



At a recent meeting of the United Planters' Association 

 of South India, at Bangalore, a resolution was adopted, 

 deprecating the competition by the government with private 

 enterprise in rubber planting. A number of " experimen- 

 tal " plantations have been formed, in various provinces, 

 and the planters fear that these may develop into productive 

 esjtates, which the government may feel disposed to extend. 



RUBBER PROSPECTS IN HAWAII. 



Mr. Brainurd H. .Smith, formerly a merchant of North 

 Brookfield, Massachusetts, going thence to live in Hawaii 

 for the benefit of his health, recently visited his old home. 

 Mr. Smith's business in Hawaii is the sale of shares in an 

 important rubber and coffee plantation in Mexico. He in- 

 forms The India Rubi!i;r World : "Rubber planting in 

 Hawaii is going forward quite rapidly in a comparatively 



small way. There have been three plantations started there, 

 the oldest being about two years, on which the Ceard trees 

 show a remarkable growth and the yield seems very promis- 

 ing. The Hcvea stumps, which were imported, show hardly 

 any growth, and I think all are planting the Ceard exclu- 

 sively. They are already producing their own seed from 

 these trees." 



AN IMPROPERLY TAPPED RUBBER TREE. 

 The illustration on this page represents a wild rubber tree 

 {Castilloa elastica) on the estate in Chiapas (Mexico) of the 

 Orizaba Rubber Plantation Co. A letter from the company 

 to The India Rubber World states: "This particular tree 

 we found among our fields of planted rubber the day after it 

 had been tapped by one of the Indians. We have a large 

 number of these wild trees and of course take great pains to 

 see that they are not mistreated, but in this particular in- 



stance the Indian who was sent out to get some rubber milk 

 had been thoroughly instructed and we supposed he under- 

 stood his business. In future we shall allow no tapping done 

 by the Indians, except with special tools which we have or 

 may procure." A machete has been used in the tapping of 

 this tree, deep cuts being made into the wood for — which 

 there is absolutel3' no necessitj- — causing great injury to the 

 tree. It is such practices that have caused the disappear- 

 ance of native rubber trees in so manj' localities. The object 

 in presenting the illustration is to point out the importance 

 of careful and rational tapping, if either wild or plantation 

 trees are to be preserved, and, in view of the character of 

 labor which must be depended upon in Mexico, of providing 

 the tappers with implements specially devised to render 

 such injurious cutting impossible. 



