280 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1911. 



Mexican Rubber Plantation Notes. 



By a Special Correspondent. 



1XTEREST in the possibilities of the cultivaiion in Mexico of 

 Para rubber ( Jlezca brasilii'iisis) continues to be manifested 

 on various sides ; and. in addition to the companies previously 

 referred to in these columns as about to undertake experimental 

 plantings of the tree, may be riientioned the Obispo Rubber 

 Plantation Company, of Hacienda Sari Silverio, near Tuxtepec, 

 State of Oaxaca, the Pennsylvania Obispo Plantation Com- 

 pany, of Plantacion La Estancia, and the Playa Vicente Rubber 

 Company, of Hacienda La Escondida, both of these latter being 

 situated in the neighborhood of Playa Vicente, on the Tesecho- 

 acan River, State of Veracruz. In this connection it may be 

 noted that the Secretaria de Fomento of the Mexican Govern- 

 ment has lately pubhshed, for general distribution, a bulletin 

 prepared by the Agricultural Experiment Station at San Juan 

 Bautista, State of Tabasco, on the subject of the culture of the 

 Para rubber tree, with a view to its encouragement in those 

 parts of the country where the physical conditions would appear 

 to be suitable. 



Of the estates above named two are also e.xtending their 

 Castilloa plantings — San Silverio putting out this year 400 acres 

 and La Estancia 250 acres. The former had several thousand 

 acres of rubber under cultivation in 1909, much of which was 

 approaching a tappable age, when, during an abnormal drought 

 in that year, aggravated by a violent south wind, it was almost 

 entirely destroyed by fire, which originated in some adjacent 

 scrub oak land. Notwithstanding every possible effort on the 

 part of the plantation force to arrest the conflagration, within 

 the short space of two hours it had swept over the place, leaving 

 only a few blocks, totalling some 150 acres, untouched. Prompt 

 action in cutting back the charred stumps has probably been the 

 salvation of the plantings, which at first seemed to be hope- 

 lessly doomed — 90 per cent, of the trees thus treated having since 

 sent up new trunks with strong foliar development. The re- 

 covery has been most remarkable, many portions of the burned 

 area now presenting the aspect of healthy new plantings. The 

 younger trees exhibit the bettg- revival, this apparent anomaly 

 being explained by the fact that the lateral root systems of the 

 older and larger trees, being so much nearer the surface of the 

 groimd, were the more exposed to the flames, and thus caused 

 the trees to suffer to a correspondingly greater degree. The 

 outlook may now be said to be distinctly encouraging, and there 

 seems every reasonable prospect of the complete restoration of 

 the property to statu quo within a period considerably less than 

 could before have been anticipated. The property was trans- 

 ferred on the 1st of May, 1910, to the Obispo Rubber Plantation 

 Company by the Republic Development Company, under a special 

 arrangement contingent upon the loss sustained -by the fire. 



On La Estancia estate, which is being planted by the Central 

 Development & Contracting Company, of Scottdale, Pennsylvania, 

 the present total area in rubber is 1,050 acres, varying in age 

 between one year and four years. .\ good stand resulted from 

 last season's planting, which amounted to 205 acres. The soil on 

 this estate is of a somewhat uncommon character. Near the 

 Tesechoracan river, which constitutes one of the boundaries, it 

 contains a large proportion of fine gravel and sand, the former 

 element diminishing as the distance from the river increases 

 until almost entirely replaced by a fine, dark colored sandy loam. 

 Such a gravelly soil may, however, be quite suitable to the 

 growth of Castilloa, for the writer knows of at least one locality 

 in Mexico where a number of big rubber trees— probably 

 twenty years or more old— are thriving in a soil which, to a 

 tested depth of four or five feet, is composed of almost pure 

 gravel. The sub-soil at La Estancia varies slightly in different 



parts of the estate, but is mainly a sandy clay, which, however, 

 possesses no great density nor any appreciable stickiness, readily 

 crumbling in the hand. The rapid absorption of water in heavy 

 rains testifies to the porous character of this formation, which, 

 in conjunction with the favorable topography of the land, assists 

 in checking surface erosion, losses of organic matter and humus. 

 •Within a short distance of La Estancia, on the road to Playa 

 ■ Vicente, is Hacienda La Escondida, on which there are, in all, 

 about a million rubber trees, while a large area is in pasture for 

 the maintenance of some 1,400 head of cattle. The best of the 

 trees, between five and six years old, were tapped f(jr the first 

 time this year. This tapping was contemplated merely as an 

 experiment, but the initial results proved so satisfactory that it 

 was thought well to continue until the output assumed com- 

 mercial proportions, a total quantity of about 6,000 lbs. of dry 

 rubber (three parts in slab and five parts in giei'ia or scrap) 

 having been obtained up to February. This rubber was prepared 

 by the usual method — coagulating with the juice of the "Jamole" 

 vine (IpoDiara bona nox), the simplest of appliances only having 

 been used, as the original intention would not have warranted 

 any great expense in equipment. 



Much interest was aroused among rubber planters in 

 Mexico by the recent visit of Mr. Harry S. Smith, of Tobago, 

 for the purpose of investigating the status of Castilloa cultiva- 

 tion in this country in comparison with the same in the British 

 West Indies. Mr. Smith came with a letter of introduction from 

 the Government of Trinidad (of which the island of Tobago is 

 a dependency), and inspected a number of representative planta- 

 tions in the states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas. His 

 itinerary included Guatemala, British Honduras and the west 

 coast of Central America, crossing the Isthmus of Panama on 

 his way home. One of the most interesting matters which he 

 discussed with planters was that of the respective methods in 

 vogue in this country and in Trinidad with regard to the tapping 

 of Castilloa rubber trees. The system adopted in the British 

 West Indies may be briefly explained as follows: The cuts are 

 made with a chisel and mallet, the former tool being 1^ inches 

 wide, with a very thin cutting edge, obtained by means of an 

 e.xtra long bevel. The chisel is held in a slightly upward direc- 

 tion, with the object of making a cut which will tend to throw 

 rain water over the lower edge and aid the wound healing 

 process. The cuts are made about 12 inches apart in a series of 

 vertical lines, spaced about three or four inches from each other, 

 from the base of the tree to a height of about six feet around 

 its whole girth, the successive series of cuts being "staggered." 

 The latex is collected on a calico apron, tied round the bottom 

 of the tree, and so arranged as to form a sort of basin into 

 which the latex may flow. From this receptacle the latex is 

 ladled into enameled-iron cups, and vessels of such material only 

 are used for its storage. It must be confessed that local planters 

 did not wax very enthusiastic over this system — especially when 

 they learned that it demanded the labor of four men to a tree. 

 .'\dmitting the possible superiority of the chisel incisions over the 

 ordinary knife e.rcisioiis. on the score of reduced cortical mutila- 

 tion of the trees, the former clearly involves a more difficult 

 problem in the collection of the latex ; and the apron device, 

 above described, by reason of its clumsiness and evident liability 

 to entail loss of latex unless very carefully adjusted to the in- 

 equalities of the tree trunk (which, in turn, would mean loss of 

 time), could scarcely be accepted as a satisfactory solution of the 

 same. Not that planters here believe for a moment that they 

 have reached finality in Castilloa tapping; but. Missourians all 

 in this respect, they want to he "shown." 



