March i, 1902.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



175 



plant 1000 acres in coffee and 1000 acres in rubber, the remain- 

 ing 500 acres to be devoted to pasture, corn, sugar cane, nur- 

 series, buildings, and 5oacres in vanilla. There are now standing 

 50,000 coffee trees four years old, expected to yield a crop this 

 year, and 2500 rubber trees three years old ; also, some pine- 

 apples and bananas, together with enough corn for the needs 

 of the plantation. The officers are : F. W. Tillinghast (lawyer 

 and cotton manufacturer. Providence, R. I.), president; C. F. 

 Eiigarlon (manufacturer, Shirley, Mass.), vice president ; W. 

 H. Chase (manufacturer, Leominster, Mass ), second vice presi- 

 dent; Alfred N. Leitch (manufacturer, Leominster), secretary 

 and treasurer. The manager at the head office is Charles A. 

 Devereaux. The plantation superintendent is T. E. Rivers, 

 who has been on the ground for four years, 



SUN AND SHAUE PLANTING FOR RUBBER. 



The illustration at the foot of this page has been supplied by 

 Mr. Maxwell Riddle, of the Obispo Rubber Plantation Co., who 

 also contributes to The India Rubber World the following 

 comment upon it : 



" There has been much discussion among rubber planters as 

 to the advisability of planting Castilloa elastica in the sun or 

 shade. It is admitted that the cost of planting in the sun is 

 much greater, owing to the rapidity with which the weeds grow, 

 which increases the cost of keeping the young plantation clean, 

 but it seems not to have occurred to the advocates of shade 

 planting that if the weeds grow faster in the sun, the rubber 

 plants will also grow faster. The company developing the 

 Obispo plantation made an experiment last year with the object 

 of comparing the two systems. There seem to be two principal 

 points to determine : (i) under which method trees will grow 

 more rapidly ; (2) given two trees of the same age, one grown 

 in the shade, and one in the sun, which will yield more rubber? 

 The experiment was designed primarily to settle the first point. 

 The company planted two nurseries, in the sun and in light 

 shade, respectively, both planted at the same time and with 

 the same care. The two accompanying views, from photo- 

 graphs taken about five months after planting the seed, indicate 

 the result. The man's hat lying on the ground in the view to 

 the right shows the size of the plants grown in the shade. The 

 boy standing in the other nursery shows the height of plants 

 grown in the sun, there being a difference of fully two feet in 

 the average height of the plants in the two nurseries. Regard- 

 ing the question as to the ultimate yield of trees grown under 

 the two systems, it is generally admitted that a brash or sappy 

 rubber tree will yield more than a hard, thin barked tree. The 



desired result can be obtained only by shading the trunks of 

 the trees. It was observed in the nursery grown in the sun 

 that where the plants were so close together as to shade each 

 other they answered the former description ; whereas when 

 they happened to be scattered they were hard and woody. The 

 management of the company, therefore, are led to conclude: 

 (i) That in order to get the size and quick growth desired in 

 seven years, the trees must be planted in the sun, and (2) that, 

 to keep the trees soft and sappy, they should be planted to the 

 number of 400 to the acre during the first years of their growth, 

 so that they will shade each other, the trees being thinned out 

 at five or six years. This experiment would seem to support 

 the theory that a wild tree growing in dense forest shade, with- 

 out attention of any sort, will not attain full maturity and maxi- 

 mum capacity of yield under at least thirty years, as against 

 fifteen years for cultivated trees." 



THE MERIDEN RUBBER PLANTING CORPORATION. 

 [Office: Meriden, Connecticut.] 



Incorporated January 23, 1902, under Connecticut laws; 

 capital, $30,000. Officers: E.W.Smith, M. D., president; D. 

 C. McMahon, d. d. s., vice president ; F. E. Bemis (superin- 

 tendent of an organ factory), secretary; Frank A. Stevens 

 (member of an insurance firm), treasurer — all of Meriden, Con- 

 necticut. At the first meeting of the incorporators $20,000 of 

 the capital was subscribed. J. Herbet Foster, of Meriden, 

 proprietor of The Rubber Alphabets Co., has been appointed 

 general manager, with authority to proceed to Mexico and 

 locate and develop a rubber plantation, with a view to a larger 

 investment being contingent upon the success of the first un- 

 dertaking. Mr. Foster was mentioned recently in The India 

 Rubber World as having spent several months in investigat- 

 ing private rubber plantations in Mexico, and he is understood 

 to hold options on desirable small estates in Vera Cruz. 



PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA. 

 The British vice consul at Inhambane in an official report, 

 mentions a rubber plantation started near that port in 1900, 

 " where already there are some 200,000 trees in a fine healthy 

 condition, many scarcely a year old already being over ten feet 

 in height. The plant [known locally as the "circa "] appears 

 to grow with extraordinary rapidity, and in all situations, 

 whether on low lying lands, or on the sides of sandy hills." 

 It is mentioned that many such trees, planted several years 

 ago, have attained considerable size, though the yield of rub- 

 ber as yet has been very small, which the vice consul thinks 

 may be due to want of experience on the part of the " tappers." 



RUBBER NURSERY PLANTED IN THE SUN.- -NURSERY PLANTED IN PARTIAL SHADE. 



