184 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, igog. 



A Successful ''Castilloa" Rubber Planter. 



THE subject of this sketch, Mr. James C. Harvey, whose por- 

 trait is here reproduced, was born at Hamilton, Out., 

 Canada, of Scotch"- and English parentage, and received 

 his education in the public schools of the Dominion. He early 

 evinced a great desire to see tropical countries, which led to his 

 accepting employment as purser's clerk in an American steamship 

 line, trading between New York and West Indian and Central 

 American ports, as a means to this end. Soon afterward he suc- 

 ceeded in joining one of the large British mercantile fleets sail- 

 ing from EJigland, and Mr. Harvey became an articled appren- 

 tice in the Castle line, owned by Sir Donald Currie & Co., of 

 Liverpool. This service extended over a period of nearly si.x 

 years, during which Mr. Harvey visited South Africa, India, 

 Ceylon and Australia, making also several sojournings of some 

 length in planting districts in the Indies. 



He took advantage of the opportunities thus afforded to study 

 tropical agriculture under many varying conditions and to 

 advance a deep inborn taste for botanical 

 and horticultural pursuits. He subse- 

 quently voyaged to the east and west 

 coasts of South America, finally arriving 

 in California, where he settled, married, 

 and became an American citizen. He en- 

 gaged for some time in manufacturing, 

 commercial, and horticultural work ; but 

 the ruling passion of his life was not to 

 be quenched, and about ten years ago he 

 went to Mexico, and spent the greater 

 part of a year in examining the planting 

 regions in the states of Veracruz and 

 Oaxaca, with a view to reentering the 

 field of tropical agriculture. The result 

 of this tour was that, in company with a 

 few associates, he acquired about a thou- 

 sand acres of land, situated in what is 

 known as the Trinidad valley district, in 

 Veracruz, to which he gave the name of 

 "La Buena Ventura," and about one-half 

 of which he has since developed, and de- 

 voted principally to the cultivation of 

 rubber {Castilloa clastica) and cacao 

 (Theobroma cacao). In the possession 

 of his picturesque palm thatched house, 



surrounded by a rare profusion of exotic, economic, and orna- 

 mental flora from all parts of the tropics, Mr. Harvey feels that 

 the gods have granted him in generous measure the fulfilment 

 of his earliest and fondest ambitions. 



A man of thought and of action, with a keen sense of humor, 

 an enthusiastic botanist and collector of lepidopicra, a cosmopoli- 

 tan of the broadest sympathies and interests, and a raconteur of 

 no mean ability, Mr. Harvey combines in his many-sided per- 

 sonality all the qualities that go to the making of a delightful 

 companion and staunch friend — on the strength of which, as 

 well as by reason of his recognized scientific and practical knowl- 

 edge of tropical agriculture, he justly enjoys a wide popularity 

 amongst the planters of the isthmus of Tehuantcpec and others 

 with whom his vocation brings him in touch. Himself an ardent 

 lover of the soil and an indefatigable worker, imbued with the 

 Carlylean gospel of duty, Mr. Harvey has the happy faculty of 

 inspiring all who came into contact with him with a sense of the 

 dignity of labor and the importance of honest effort. 



It should not be overlooked that to Mr. Harvey belongs the 

 credit of introducing many useful plants hitherto unknown to 

 Mexico, such as the East Indian jack fruit, cinnamon, African 



J.\MES Clay Harvey 



akee fruit, Surinam cherries, grafted Indian mangos, cardamons, 

 economic bamboos ; Indian, Malayan and South American palms ; 

 fiber producing plants, such as Sansiviera Zeylanica, S. Guinien- 

 sis, and the famous Manila hemp plant (Musa textilis) ; also 

 many, newer varieties of pineapples, bananas, oranges, etc., be- 

 sides an infinity of flowering trees, shrubs and creepers, the culti- 

 cation of all of which, with very few exceptions, has proved 

 entireU' successful. 



Mr. Harvey has long been a correspondent of the principal 

 botanical stations in the tropics, including the royal botanic gar- 

 dens at Calcutta, Peradeniya, Singapore, Natal, Mauritius, Sey- 

 chelles, and the Gold Coast, as well as the famous institution at 

 Kew, London, this correspondence relating to the results of ex- 

 perience and new ideas in planting methods, and the interchange 

 of seeds and plants adapted to the respective climatic conditions. 

 It is what Mr. Harvey has done in the culture of the Castilloa 

 ruljber, however, that will most appeal to the readers of this 

 sketch. He has studied the tree under all 

 conditions as no one else has ; has exam- 

 ined soils where the tree flourished and 

 where it did not, made careful records of 

 rainfall and temperature, and noted the 

 effect of all, not only upon the growth of 

 the tree, but upon the amount and quality 

 of the latex produced. He has studied the 

 seeds with the idea of discovering why 

 certain of them produced vital, thrifty, 

 trees, and so many other trees of a medi- 

 ocre quality. It was he who discovered 

 that after Castilloas had grown like weeds 

 for four or five years and then apparently 

 stopped for one or two, that it was be- 

 cause the quality and depth of the soil 

 had not encouraged the growth of large 

 laterals to furnish nutrition, when the tap 

 root had done all it could. He was also 

 the pioneer in stopping the careful clean- 

 ing under which grass flourished and al- 

 lowing a carefully regulated jungle growth 

 to cover the ground between the trees 

 without robbing the soil to the detriment 

 of the rubber tree. He was the first to 

 advocate for plantation work a simple, 

 inexpensive native method of coagulation, and one of the first to 

 appreciate and use the tapping tool that most Mexican planters 

 to-day have adopted. With all his traveling, correspondence and 

 plantation work, he keeps open house, and of the scores of 

 travelers who have received his hospitality there are none but 

 what go away impressed with his force, originality, capacity, and 

 knowledge. 



Mr. Harvey's career in connection with Mexican rubber plant- 

 ing is all the more interesting, in view of the fact that his work 

 as a pioneer has been based largely upon individual initiative, and 

 not supported by a large corporation, as in the case of so much 

 planting in (hat country. 



The Mabira Forest (Uganda) Rubber Co., Limited, a £120,000 

 company organized in London in 1906 to operate in British 

 East Africa, employing improved methods for dealing with 

 Funtumia elastica trees, are shipping rubber. At a late London 

 auction 165 packages sold for their account brought up to 4^, id. 

 [=ggy3 cents] for dark sheet and 3^. 3d. b=79 cents] for rough 

 sheet scrap. At the last Antwerp inscription a small amount of 

 LTganda plantation rubber was offered. 



