294 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



EI, 1903. 



" LA I I'N 1 A. 



HEADQUARTERS OF THE PLANl'A I 1 1 >\ COMPANY. 



more graphic illustration than this of the necessity for observ- 

 ing proper conditions in planting, and further, as a warning 

 against planting in badly drained land or in the shade. 



It is well to note that where these failures appeared there 

 were several wild rubber trees that we estimated to be 25 or 30 

 years old. They seemed to be perfectly healthy and bled free- 

 ly. The only reasonable explanation of this is that they were 

 seedlings that grew up slowly in the densest sort of forest when 

 the tremendous surface growth was so luxuriant as to be able to 

 partially drain the ground through its great leaf areas and also 

 lift and make it porous by the leverage of myriads of thrusting 

 roots. The partial clearing of the land later stopped most of 

 this aerial drainage and the subsequent rotting of the roots al- 

 lowed the ground to sink into a solid, water-sodden mass. 



The land at " La Ventura " seemed to be first leaf mold, then 

 a rich yellow loam three or more feet deep, and under that a 

 blue clayey ooze, as if from the bottom of a tropical 

 ocean bed. It was rolling land as a rule, very well 

 drained, and capable of growing almost any tropical product. 

 The Castilloa orchard, through which I tramped many times, 

 had in it about 240,000 trees, from one to four years of age. All 

 of them were planted from the seed, except a small percentage 

 taken from nursery stock to make up for the occasional failure 

 of a seedling. 



One result of my early observation, and one that grew with 

 each day's experience, was the conviction that a knowledge of 

 climate, rainfall, soils, drainage, etc., is an absolute necessity 

 from the beginning in the selection of suitable sites for rubber 

 plantations. In other words, the expert tropical agriculturist, 

 well equipped with common sense, is most likely to be the one 

 who starts right. For example, one plans to plant the Castilloa. 

 It is a soft wood tree, a tree that from its physical formation is 



not built to stand high winds, that with its long taproot must 

 have a deep, rich soil and well drained withal. It is a decidu- 

 ous tree, which means that at a certain time each year it encour- 

 ages the presence of the sun's rays on its trunk and limbs. The 

 prospective planter should, therefore, pick out land that is cov- 

 ered with a growth of soft rather than hard wood trees, as the 

 latter points to gravelly soil instead of clayey loam. It should 

 be rolling land, or at least land that is naturally well drained. 

 It should be soil that will give the tree plenty of moisture dur- 

 ing the dry season and yet that will not be soggy during the 

 wet. For a running rule there should be at least four feet of 

 drainage soil. In the clearing of the land, if there are not nat- 

 ural windbreaks, a certain amount of forest should be left stand- 

 ing to act as such. Referring again to the long taproot of the 

 Castilloa, it is said that as the tree grows older it often disap- 

 pears, its place being taken by large laterals. 



I STRUCK, the Tier 1 a Calienle just at the beginning of the dry 

 season, and therefore was curious to know exactly what the 

 rainy and dry seasons consist of in the tropics. Of 

 course, no general answer could be given, as in dif- 

 ferent tropical regions these seasons have their own 

 idiosyncracies. I believe I had but little idea of what the 

 weather really was in the rainy season, whether it rained all the 

 time or was partly rainy and partly clear, and this is what I 

 learned. In the state of Vera Cruz the dry season runs roughly 

 from February to June. During the latter part of May there 

 are about three weeks of genuine hot, dry weather. Prior to 

 this, what is really the dry season is often broken by rainfall ; 

 in fact it rains a little about half the time. Beginning with the 

 first of June, however, and lasting until the first of September, 

 come the torrential rains, except that there is in August a week 

 or ten days of dry weather. Nine days out of ten during the tor- 



RAINY 

 SEASON. 



LA JUNTA. RUBBER PLANTATION SEEN FROM MAIN TRAIL. 



