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THE INDIA RUBBER ^A^ORLD 



[February i, 1902. 



THE RUBBER PLANTING INTEREST. 



PRIVATE RUBBER PLANTING IN MEXICO. 



WRITING to The India Rubber World, Mr. James 

 C. Harvey, of the plantation " La Buena Ventura," 

 at San Juan Evangelista, Vera Cruz, Mexico, states 

 that his planted rubber continues to grow most sat- 

 isfactorily, and that he has now nearly 1 50,000 trees under cul- 

 tivation, besides several thousand cacao trees. "The time 

 is drawing near," he adds, " when inquisitive people in the 

 East will be able to satisfy their curiosity as regards the 

 production of rubber from cultivated trees." This plantation 

 is privately owned in the sense that the public has not been in- 

 vited to take an interest in it, but there are associated with 

 Mr. Harvey in its ownership several citizens of Los Angeles, 

 California, where Mr. Harvey at one time lived. The man- 

 agement is wholly in the hands of Mr. Harvey, who is an ex- 

 perienced tropical planter and wh j makes his home on the 

 estate.==The above is not the only example of privately cul- 

 tivated rubber in Mexico, which may be worth noting on ac- 

 count of the prominence attained in the public mind by large 

 companies who are ofTering for sale shares in cooperative 

 planting enterprises. Mr. Maxwell Riddle, mentioned several 

 times in this paper, assures The India Rubber World 

 that he has visited in Mexico many private estates, owned by 

 planters from the United States, who have the means to carry 

 out such enterprises as they have undertaken, some of whom 

 have been in Mexico for several years and are pleased with 

 their success thus far, and whose principal object is the culti- 

 vation of rubber, whatever other crops they may have in hand. 

 Mr. Riddle has an estate near San Juan Evangelista, which is 

 the postoffice for the following planters interested in rubber: 

 George R. Miller, [r.. Dr. W. S. Cockrell, Eugene Griffin, 

 Harry Lane, W. R. Waite. E. A. Dorman, Drs. W. C. and,W. L. 

 Hall, M. H. Newmark, and R. A. Chadwick. Then at Coatz- 

 acoalcos are J. K. McClymonds, F. L. McFarland, Judge H. D. 

 Barto, and O. M. Powers. William A. Clark, the Montana 

 millionaire and the owner of a large estate near Alvarado, is 

 planting rubber extensively, and near him are Tarr Brothers 

 and Charles T. Wing, similarly interested but on a smaller 

 scale. A. G. Weiss, of Chicago, has a plantation near Hui- 

 manguillo, in Tabasco, and the list could be still further ex- 

 tended. Willis & Trowbridge and Pearson & Leversly, both of 

 Tuxtepec, state of Oaxaca, are said to have the largest private 

 rubber plantations in Mexico, with the exception of Senator 

 Clark and Mr. Weiss, above named. 



ILLINOIS-MEXICO CO., OF CHICAGO. 



Incorporated under Illinois laws; capital $30,000. Officers: 

 George Mason, of Chicago, president; John S. Spencer, of 

 Bloomington, Illinois, vice president and general manager; 

 Eugene R. Cox, Chicago manager of the Barber Asphalt Co., 

 secretary and treasurer. The other directors are E. W. Brooks, 

 of Chicago, and E. R. Morgan, of Bloomington. The com- 

 pany have bought two plantations near Minatitlan, on the Coat- 

 coalcos river, in Vera Cruz, Mexico, belonging to Roland 

 Hughes, of Kansas City, and John S. Spencer, named above. 

 Considerable improvement had been made on these estates, in- 

 cluding the planting of coffee, rubber, and cacao. There are 

 said to be 2000 six year old rubber trees and 5000 younger 

 ones.and 24,ooocofTee plants that have borne three crops. Mr. 

 Spencer, who has been in Mexico much of the time for twelve 

 years, and will have an important interest in the new com- 



pany, is to be resident manager. It is intended to plant 300 

 acres in rubber this year. 



MEXICAN INVESTMENT AND MANUFACTURING CO. 



[Plantation at Tibuattan. stale of Vera Cruz. Mexico. Office; Society for 

 Savings building, Cleveland, Ohio.] 



Incorporated in 1897 under Iowa laws ; capital, $5,000,000. 

 Home office, Dubuque, Iowa ; principal office, Cleveland, Ohio ; 

 branches in New York and Mexico City. Objects, the cultiva- 

 tion of India-rubber and other tropical growths, first in Mex- 

 ico, and later elsewhere, as in the Philippines ; also, to manu- 

 facture such articles as can be made profitably from plantation 

 products. The company own what they call the Tihuatlan 

 plantation, of 5000 acres near the town of the same name, in 

 the Tuxpam valley, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. The work of 

 planting has been begun, and it is stated that the entire capital 

 stock of the company has been subscribed for. The officers 

 are: William Vernon Backus, of Cleveland, president; James 

 N. Huston, of New York, late treasurer of the United States, 

 vice president; Charles O. Evarts and M. K. Mullin, of Cleve- 

 land, treasurer and secretary. 



LOS ANDES RUBBER, LUMBER, AND FRUIT CO. (NEW ORLEANS). 

 [Mentioned in The India Rubber World, November i, igoi— page45.] 

 This company has a concession from the Guatemalan gov- 

 ernment of 200 manzanas [=440 acres] of land, free of taxation 

 for 13 years, after which it may be purchased by the company 

 at $2.50, gold, per manzana. As soon as this tract is placed 

 under cultivation, another may be obtained on the same terms, 

 and so on, as long as the company may be prepared to extend 

 its operations, to a limit of 12,500 acres already located. It was 

 reported November 15 that 400 well grown rubber trees {Cas- 

 tilloa elaitica) had been counted on the first 200 manzanas of 

 land, besides many smaller trees ; 40 manzanas had been cleared 

 for planting; and 15,000 rubber seedlings from neighboring 

 forests had been received, out of an order for 60,000. They 

 were planted 200 to the manzana [ = 91 per acre], and the in- 

 termediate spaces are to be planted in bananas, until the rub- 

 ber trees become productive. 



ROCHESTER-MEXICAN PLANTATION CO. 

 Incorporated under New York laws, November 27, 1901 ; 

 to deal in real estate and tropical products, including India- 

 rubber; capital, $60,000. Directors: Charles H. Angell, John 

 Zeeveld, and J. B. Snyder, Jr. — of Rochester, New York — and 

 Augustus S. Pendry, of Elmira. Offices: Granite building, 

 Rochester. 



COSTA RICAN RUBBER TREES FOR THE CONGO. 

 H. Stuart Hotchkiss, secretary of The L. Candee & Co. 

 (New Haven, Conn.), writes in The P'orester an article on 

 "The Rubber Industry of Costa Rica," in which he says: 

 " Near Port Limon on the coast many young rubber trees are 

 grown merely for exportation, and with no idea of tapping. 

 These are grown among the cacao and when about a year old 

 are cut off just below the leaves, and the stems are packed in 

 boxes, the layers being separated by a little dry earth. The 

 market for this queer product is, I understand Belgium, whence 



they are reshipped to the Congo." 



• * * 



The incorporation is reported of the Orizaba Rubber Plan- 

 tation Co., January 10, under South Dakota laws, at Yankton, 

 in that state, with $100,000 capital. 



