254 



THE INDIA RUBBER V/ORLD 



[May I, 1902. 



sale, at $240 each, payable in installments within five years, 

 these not being shares of stock, but representing the right of 

 the purchaser to share in the profits of the plantation to the 

 extent represented by his holding of certificates." It appears 

 that this statement is inexact. From a copy of the company's 

 contract with shareholders, now at hand, it is seen that the 

 company distinctly agrees to give the purchaser complete con- 

 trol over the acres he actually buys, at any time he desires to 

 take control after the expiration of the development period of 

 five years. Each share represents 1-2000 of 2200 acres, of 

 which 1600 acres are to be planted in rubber (480,000 trees), 

 400 acres in cacao (160,000 trees), 5 acres in vanila (5000 vines), 

 and 195 acres in " short crops " at the discretion of the man- 

 agement. Djring the development period the property is held 

 in trust for the investors by the California Safe Deposit and 

 Trust Co. (San Francisco.) When the first 2200 acres have 

 thus been placed under development, another similar tract will 

 be opened, and a new series of shares offered for sale, and so 

 on, the company having 15,000 acres of land altogether. 



LA ZACUALPA RUBBER PLANTATION CO. 

 fPIaotatioD near Tmpachula, state of Chiapas. Mexico ; offices ; San Francisco, 

 California.! 



The location of this plantation was inadvertently given as 

 being in Oaxaca, in The India Rubber World for March i. 

 [page i97.]i=^=The company have issued in pamphlet form a 

 report by E. S. Van Court, of Oakland, California, a stock- 

 holder who recently visited the plantation. He states that he 

 saw three 7 year old trees yield 6j4 pounds of /aiez at one tap- 

 ping ; five II year old trees, said to have been tapped several 

 times within twelve months, yielded in 20 minutes enough 

 /a/ex to make 2'^ pounds of rubber. Mr. Van Court considers 

 the Caslilloa elastica very tenacious of life ; where trees had 

 been cut down, shoots at once sprang up from the stumps, and 

 where a tree had blown down, leaving most of the roots ex- 

 posed, a number of shoots had grown up from the trunk. Mr. 

 O. H. Harrison, manager of the estate, is mentioned as being 

 at work upon a machine for tapping the trees, which will do 

 less harm to the trees than tapping with the machete, while the 

 opening made in the bark will permit the latex to flow more 

 freely than where trees are tapped by the old method. 



MEXICAN MUTUAL PLANTERS* CO. 

 (Plantation: La Junta, stale of Vera Cruz. Offices: New York Life building, 

 Chicago.] 



A COMMITTEE of bondholders who visited this plantation 

 recently reported on the progress of the various cultures there, 

 the chief of which, to date, is coflEee. There were planted in 

 1901, however, 10,000 rubber trees, for coffee shade, 16X16 feet 

 apart, and 330,000 trees, in the open, 7|4X7/^ feet apart. The 

 latter planting covered about 478 acres. The trees were one 

 year old when transplanted, and the loss amounted to only 

 about 5 per cent. There were also about 3,000,000 rubber 

 plants, in six nurseries, covering 34 acres. The management 

 planned to clear and plant more than 1000 acres in rubber in 

 1902.—— The company's horticulturist, James Maunder, writes 

 in the Madras (India) MailxM-iX 340,000 rubber plants were set 

 out in July last, within 28 days from the start. The men em- 

 ployed made from 350 to 500 pits per day with posthole dig- 

 gers, and one man could set 350 plants daily. Part of the area 

 was then planted in corn, which kept down the weeds so that 

 no weeding of the rubber was required until after the corn was 

 harvested. The rubber was then weeded, and a second crop 

 of corn planted — making two crops of the latter in one year. 

 The second planting of corn was made within seven months 

 from the first clearing of the ground. He expected to set out 

 1,000,000 rubber plants this year. 



CHIAPAS RUBBER PLANTATION AND INVESTMENT CO. 



[Plantation " San Luis." near Palenque, department of Palcnque, state of Chi- 

 apas, Mexico. Office : Crocker building, San Francisco.] 



The president of the company, Mr. L. H. Bonestell, wrote 

 from San Francisco March 25, in answer to a communica- 

 tion from The India Rubber World office, about his not 

 having stated the number of acres planted in rubber by his 

 company : " 1 did not do this for the reason that this had pre- 

 viously been reported, and as very little planting has been 

 done since last planting season, June and July, there was very 

 little change in that respect. The number of acres actually 

 planted is 4000 and some hundred acres ; cannot give you the 

 exact number to date." Mr. Bonestell states that while visiting 

 the plantation in February, he had a test made, as follows : " An 

 acre was laid off already staked, and two men set to planting 

 with old refuse seed left over. It took them just twenty min- 

 utes by the watch."— —Criticism has been made in these pages 

 of the character of the Chiapas company's advertising — particu- 

 larly to a page which appeared in the San Francisco News Let- 

 ter. A letter to The India Rubber World from the propri- 

 etor of that journal says : " I beg to say that the page illustra- 

 tion of the Chiapas Rubber Co. published in the San Francisco 

 News Letter September 15, 1900, was not paid advertising mat- 

 ter." 



LA ESPERANZA RUBBER CO. 



[Hacienda de Tula, township of El Maison, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. Office: 

 Providence, Rhode Island.] 



This plantation embraces 500 acres bought by Carleton Hale 

 in 1898, being then virgin forest. There have been 270 acres 

 cleared, and 130,000 rubber trees, of various ages, are now 

 standing, together with 10,000 plants in nursery, which will be 

 transplanted this summer on land now being cleared. Mr. Hale 

 is in charge. The company is Incorporated. Edgar J. Doe is 

 president and W. P. Hale treasurer. The latter writes to The 

 India Rubber World : " Ours is not one of the million dollar 

 companies that promise returns from by products the first 

 year, but a legitimate enterprise for making money when the 

 trees get large enough to tap." 



COSTA RICA DEVELOPMENT CO. 



[Plantation, San Carlos, Costa Rica. Office : Los Anfjeles, California.] 



Incorporated March 26, 1900, under Arizona laws; capital, 

 $1,000,000, in %\ shares. Have purchased 7488 acres in Costa 

 Rica, on the San Carlos river, which empties into the San 

 Juan, and that in turn into the Atlantic. There is navigable 

 water to the property, which lies within 15 miles of the pro- 

 posed Nicaragua canal. In July, 1901, were planted 75,000 

 rubber and 10,000 cacao trees. A large planting from seeds is 

 planned for the coming June. The officers are substantial busi- 

 ness men of Los Angeles, California. At the annual meeting, 

 on March 27, the following were elected : L. W. Blinn, presi- 

 dent ; H. Jevne and C. S. Hogan, vice presidents; J. B. Hen- 

 derson, secretary ; E. B. Merrill, treasurer. The plantation 

 superintendent is Guy Hogan, a son of Vice President Hogan. 

 The company offer stock for development purposes at 50 cents 

 a share. They also offer to sell, for $150, ten acres of land, of 

 a tract of 2000 acres now under development, to be planted 

 with 200 rubber trees to the acre, and cared for by the com- 

 pany for four years, payment for the tract to be made in in- 

 stallments, if desired. 



MEXICAN DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION CO. OF WIS- 

 CONSIN. 



[Plantation in Oaxaca, Mexico. Office: Oshkosh, Wisconsin.] 



Incorporated under Wisconsin laws; formally organized 

 February 20, 1902 ; capital, $50,000, fully paid in cash. Com- 



