July i, 1903] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



335 



ANOTHER (AMP ON PLANTATION " Rl BIO. 



dence that is disgusting. It is said that every community in 

 those parts has one buzzard for every inhabitant. According to 

 that, Minatitlan has lots of folks that do not appear in public, 

 for seated on fences, on roofs, swooping down to rob the dogs, 

 fighting, flapping, and squawking, the buzzards were legion. 



A little later we all assembled at the boat landing, climbed 

 over a lot of Indian dugouts, and were prepared for the trip up 

 river. Our journey that day was to be up the Coatzacoalcos. 

 the Usapanapa. and Chichigapa rivers, some twenty miles, to 

 view plantation " Kubio." We had elected to talk a lot about 

 rubber planting, but the strange sights, the wonderful scenery, 

 and the glory of the day drove all thought of " shop " out of 

 our minds. By tangled forests, great grassy plains, Indian vil- 

 lages, bamboo thickets, we went, disturbing sullen alligators, 

 and great milk white cranes, and being hailed in unknown 

 tongues by the naked children on the river banks. 



When the novelty of the scene had in a measure worn off, I 

 availed myself of my privilege of asking questions, selecting the 

 general manager of the " Solo Suchil " as my first 

 victim. He responded most cordially, and I soon 

 learned that his plantation w;»s an amalgamation of 

 three estates, was named after the river on which it was situ- 

 ated, and that it grew both coffee and rubber, the latter being 

 used for shade. He had planted both from seed and from 

 nursery stock, but favored the former when practicable. His 

 trees were from one to five years old, and there were about 

 400.000 of them. He, like all others, was of the opinion that it 

 was fatal to allow the grass to get a foothold among the rubber 

 trees. For this reason, when the rubber was planted alone, it 

 was put in from seven to nine feet apart, and as a further pre- 

 caution, he was planting between the rows a kind of sweet po- 

 tato known as the " camate," which covered the ground with 

 a dense mat of vines among which the grass would not grow. 

 This brought out the store of botanical knowledge of my friend 

 Harvey, who recommended the cow pea and the velvet bean 

 for just this purpose, an opinion that I found shared by the 

 others, notably by Dr. W. S. Cockrell, another pioneer planter, 

 of the very interesting meeting with whom I shall tell later. 



SOLO 

 SUCHIL.' 



After a two hours* ride we turned into Chichigapa creek, a 



deep silent waterway about 200 feet wide, and erelong w;ere 



tied up at the wharf that is part of the " Rubio " 



first view estate As the banks are low, a substantial plat- 



OF RUBIO." 



form some 600 feet long leads back to the 

 ' : a, or storehouse. This is a two story building of brick, 

 with tiled roof on one side and glass roof on the other, and is 

 something that every planter should have. It is in fact a dry 

 house for corn and beans, and is fitted with airtight bins for 

 the storage of these cereals, an effective protection against the 

 omnipresent weevil and equally troublesome mold. 



The building that challenged our admiration for its beauty, 

 however, and later for its manifest utility, was the two story 

 dormitory that, situated on an eminence further back looked 

 like a planter's mansion. On close inspection it was found to 

 contain a dining room and kitchen, and sixteen sleeping rooms, 

 all of which opened out on to a broad verandah, which was 

 wholly enclosed in wire netting. The partitions between the 

 rooms were made of burlap, painted over to give it a finish, a 

 very practical and economical plan in a country where matched 

 boards bring a high premium. 



To view the plantation proper, it was necessary to have re- 

 course to the horse, and after lunch quite a party of us started 

 through the typical forest trail toward the cleared and planted 

 land at the further side of the estate. At length we emerged 

 into the open, and found ourselves on a ridge from which we 

 had a view of hundreds of acres of rich rolling land, all covered 

 with Castilloa trees about a year old. We rode over this whole 

 planting, visited the four camps where the native workmen 

 live in pilm thatched houses, and examined the rubber trees 

 on the hilltops, on side hills, and in the valleys, and when we 

 were told that the stand of rubber embraced 1500 acres, all 

 cleared, burned, and planted in one short season, and that there 

 were fully 2,030,000 healthy trees, we fell to congratulating 

 Manager Luther on the accomplishment of so marvelous a 

 task. It took so long to do the whole of the sightseeing that 

 it was dark when we entered the forest again for our two or 

 three mile return ride. Our horses knew the way, however, 



