December 1. 1911.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD. 



115 



4( 



Hevea Brasiliensis" In Mexico. 



{By a Special Correspondent.) 



REFERENCE has been made on several previous occasions 

 in these columns to the progress effected by the practical 

 introduction into Mexico of the Para rubber tree (Hevea 

 Brasiliensis), and a recent visit to the property of a British 

 corporation known as El Palmar Rubber Estates, Limited — sit- 



NuRSERY OF "Hevea," Ten Months Old, at El Palmar, with 

 Plantation of Castilloa in Background. 



uated near the station of Tezonapa on the Vera Cruz and Isth- 

 mus Railway — afforded the writer an opportunity of studying 

 more closely what had been accomplished there, and of amplify- 

 ing details already given, in respect to this interesting and im- 

 portant departure. When the original experimental nursery of 



Nursery of "Hevea," Seven Months Old, at El Palmar. 



Hevea at El Palmar was first seen by your correspondent in 

 March of this year the plants (in number some 7,000, repre- 



senting a 70 per cent, stand in germination from imported seed) 

 were about five months old and of an average height of 3 feet. 

 Within the brief space of four months they were observed to 

 have grown to twice this height, a considerable proportion 

 reaching even as much as 9 feet, with a girth, at 1 foot above 

 the ground, of ZYz inches — results comparable with the best ob- 

 tained in the East. These seedlings have since been success- 

 fully transplanted into the field, and an order has been placed 

 for 100.000 more seed, which consignment is now almost daily 



Nursery of "Hevea," Ten Months Old, at El Palmar. 



expected to arrive, specially prepared ground being in readi- 

 ness for the same. 



Other estates in Mexico upon which tentative trials have been 

 made with Hevea are those of La Buena Ventura, on the Isth- 

 mus of Tehuantepec ; Batavia, in the District of Tuxtepec, State 

 of Oaxaca; and El Chival and Hular Ramirez, in the State of 

 Chiapas. One of these trees on the first-named property, when 

 five years old, measured 20 inches in circumference, at 3 feet 

 above the ground. At Batavia there are about fifty specimens, 

 from seven to ten years old, growing in a clay soil. Some of 

 them have borne seed several times, and, according to the latest 

 1 eports, all are in a flourishing condition. 



It is worthy of mention, notwithstanding the much earlier 

 trials of individual planters and planting companies, as indi- 



