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THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1901 



THE RUBBER TREES AT TUXTEPEC. 



TO THE Editor ok The India Rubrek World; An arti- 

 cle signed Frederic]. Hasiclns, dated Cityof Mexico. De- 

 cember 3, and published in the St. Louis Globe Democrat of 

 December 14 1902, seems designed to create a decidedly un- 

 favorable impression in regard to rubber planting. This writer 

 criticises the issuance of rubber planting prospectuses, guaran- 

 teeing extravagant profits, and so far as his letter is concerned 

 one might infer that all rubber planting in Mexico is of a vis- 

 ionary character based upon false hopes. As for his facts, how- 

 ever, he gives some details regarding the collection of rubber 

 on a plantation near the town of Tuxtepec which do not appear 

 to support his conclusions. [An extract from Mr. Haskins's 

 letter appeared in the last India Rubber World. — The Edi- 

 tor]. Mr. Haskins says : " If rubber growing would guarantee 

 10 per cent, on the investment — not to speak of 400 per cent. — 

 there is enough idle capital ready and waiting in the United 

 States to plant every acre of land suitable to its culture in the 

 world, and it would not be necessary to advertise to get it, 

 either." 



The rubber belt of tropical Mexico lies at an altitude of from 

 200 to 500 feet, between the foot hills of the Cordilleras on one 

 side, and the low coast plains on the other. Its northern limit 

 can be roughly placed at a point just south of Cordoba or Vera 

 Cruz, and extends southward and eastward to the states of Ta- 

 basco and Chiapas, and is from 20 to 50 miles wide. Much o( 

 the land in this region, however, on account of the soil lacking 

 proper drainage, and the nature of its constituents, is unavail 

 able for successful rubber culture. 



Here and there in years gone by, in all this entire region, 

 planters of coffee and cacao have set out rubber trees as shade. 

 These rubber trees were uncultivated and often planted under 

 unfavorable conditions; yet in many instances they have 

 proved a marked success. On the ride between Santiago 

 Tuxia and Palo Herrido the Indians will be seen to have rub- 

 ber growing in their various coffee patches. The same is true 

 in Acayuacan, in the state of Vera Cruz, and in the valley of the 

 Texechoacan,' and in the town of Tuxtepec, state of Oaxaca, 

 every dooryard has vigo'ously growing rubber trees, some of 

 them 50 feet high and 2)2 feet in diameter, and yielding rubber. 



Undoubtedly the rubber plantation to which Mr. Haskins 

 refers is that of Stiior Don Joaquin Jimenez, whose plantation 

 is only one half hour's ride from the city of Tuxtepec, in Oa- 

 xaca. He is a gentleman of means, who, like other planters, 

 uses these trees as shade for coffee. He has several thousand 

 rubber trees that were never tapped until last year, when, as 

 an experiment, he allowed a representative from a Vera Cruz 

 commercial house to tap about 350 trees. The product was 

 sold to these people on the plantation at 80 cents a pound, 

 Mexican, the buyer doing all the work. No one has admitted 

 that these trees were bled to their fullest capacity, yet a single 

 tree produced, according to Mr. Haskins's statement, 12 pounds 

 of pure rubber. The age of many of the trees was from seven 

 t) nine years, but they yielded 2 pounds of rubber to the tree. 



Yet Mr. Haskins does not believe in rubber culture. The 

 Vera Cruz house paid Stfior Jimenez only 80 cents, silver, per 

 pound, but the market quotation for Central rubbers at that 

 time was from 45 to 54 cents gold, which, reduced to silver 

 money, according to the rate of exchange used by Mr. Has- 

 kins, would give an equivalent of $1.16 to $1.38, silver, per 

 pound. Mr. Haskins says that the rubber was clean, in which 

 event 800 pounds should have sold at $432, gold, but at the 

 lowest quotations the price would have been S360, gold, which 

 is not so bad, when it is considered that 350 trees are less than 



are planted usually on two acres. At the price paid to Senor 

 Jimenez the net return was at the rate of S365.60, silver, per 

 acre — counting 20a trees to the acre. Estimated at the then 

 current market prices for Mexican rubber, the same yield 

 would have given a gross return of §205.65 to S246.78, gold, per 

 acre. This is only for young trees. Not only would success- 

 ive annual crops be gathered, but an annual increase in yield 

 should be expected as the trees grow older. As already men- 

 tioned, some of the older trees in this case yielded 12 pounds 

 of rubber. 



I am not saying anything about the people who issue state- 

 ments about the profits possible from rubber planting invest- 

 nients, or who are charging high prices for rubber lands 

 brought to a state of income development. I do not defend 

 any dishonestly conducted proposition ; neither do I say that 

 there are any dishonestly conducted rubber planting proper- 

 ties. I simply desire to state facts as they exist, and the bona 

 fide investor can form his own conclusion. 



It is an easy matter to verify the statements as to Senor 

 Jimenez's plantation of cofTee and rubber, also to visit the 

 " Esperanza" and " Yale " rubber plantations, within one-half 

 hour's ride from Tierra Blanca, on the Vera Cruz and Pacific 

 railroad, where can be seen about 700,000 growing rubber trees, 

 now from three to five years old. Experience shows that trees 

 grown from planted seeds produce rubber as is usual in nature. 



It should be stated that the price of Mexican rubber is low 

 for the reason that up to this time the rubber sold is the pro- 

 duct of wild trees gathered by the Indians, who take pains to 

 increase its weight by adding sticks, stones, and dirt to make it 

 weigh as much as possible. But properly prepared Mexican 

 rubber sells at a much higher price. j j. fitzgerrell. 



City of Mexico, Mexico, December 26, 1902. 



[There seems to be no doubt of the existence of Senor Don 

 Joaquin Jimenez, the coffee planter near Tuxtepec, and of a con- 

 siderable number of rubber trees on his estate. According to 

 a report made by a neighbor of Stiior Jimenez to The India 

 Rubber World last summer, and quoted in our issue of August 

 I, 1902, there had been planted to that date some 10,000 trees. 

 Our informant then stated, as a fact current in the community : 

 " Recently he permitted some of his six and eight year old trees 

 to be tapped by men sent to his place by a Vera Cruz trader, 

 who extracted and cured about 700 poundsof rubber, for which 

 they paid 80 cents, Mexican. The trees tapped yielded an aver- 

 age of about I pound per tree." In a newspaper article by Mr. 

 Haskins, who presumably is not personally informed, he repro- 

 duces a statement from a mercantile house whose standing he 

 vouches for, that their representative, in search of facts relating 

 to rubber culture, had found a planter near Tuxtepec on whose 

 estate 350 trees (a few of them twenty years old) had yielded 

 800 pounds of clean rubber. These two statements do not 

 agree in detail, and there yet remains to be obtained a verified 

 account of just how much rubber was obtained per tree. It is 

 certain, however, that Stfior Jimenez obtained less than the 

 market price for his product, but he was relieved of the expense 

 of preparing, shipping, and marketing the rubber. Considering 

 that his trees are in shape for an annual yield for an indefinite 

 period, and that there is now no longer necessary any expense 

 for care of the trees, it would appear that if rubber planters 

 generally can obtain anything near like so good results, they 

 have a good business in prospect. — The Editor.] 



The United States internal revenue department has issued 

 an order permitting the use of a rubber stamp for cancellation 

 of tax paid stamps for renovated butter. Hitherto such can- 

 cellation has been required to be made with a stencil plate. 



