116 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December I, 19.1. 



cated in the foregoing, that the Agricuhural Section of the 

 Defartumenio de Fomento of the Mexican Government has 

 lately imported from Ceylon several thousand Hevea stumps, 

 having distrilmted and delivered them, in lots of from 50 to 



Hevea, Five Years Old, at La Buen'a Ventura. 



500, free to all bona fide applicants, with the object of promot- 

 ing tests of this culture under varying physical conditions, re- 

 ports ■ embodying such data being invited as to the results 

 secured. 



With regard to the satisfactory growth of Hczca that lias 

 been noted in Mexico, so far as e-xperience has gone, it may 

 be contended that such evidence may later prove as delusive as 

 it cannot be denied has been the 'case, unfortunately, with former 

 anticipations respecting Castilloa. iij Mexico. This possibility 

 is, however, measurably disposed, pfby. the fact that in certain 

 places where Castilloa has not done well, perfectly healthy 

 Hevea trees, five and six years old, are to be seen today. 

 Hevea appears to be far less capricious than Castilloa, adapting 

 itself much more readily to a greater variety of soils. 



It has frequently been maintained that a prolonged season of 

 rainfall is essential to the well-being of Hevea; but it has been 

 found in practice that, given a soil sufficiently deep and granular 

 in character to provide adequate capillarity from the lower water 

 level, the best growth has been attained with a moderate but 

 well distributed rainfall, ranging between 90 and 120 inclies per 

 annum. It is held, moreover, by some, that a well-dctined dry 

 season is a natural advantage, as tending to check excessive 

 transpiration. Apropos of this point, the writer learned in con- 



the course of an instructive lecture on Hevea cultivation in those 

 regions, had stated that the total precipitation there was dis- 

 tributed over six months of the year. Tliis would seem to be an 

 exceptional and extreme case, similar conditions certainly not 

 prevailing in any of the rubber planting districts of Mexico, 

 where, as a matter of fact, both rainfall and temperature are 

 generally suitable for Hevea. 



Hevea exhibits in the early stages of its development a pecu- 

 liar physiological phenomenon in what is termed periodicity of 

 growth. Instead of any continuous growth, as in Castilloa, a 

 series of distinct sectional growths appear to be made during the 

 year ; the standard or main stem shooting up with great rapidity 

 from a matured terminal bud to the extent of 1 or 2 feet within 

 a period of a month or six weeks. Growth then temporarily 

 ceases, and the newly produced section more or less ripens dur- 

 ing the succeeding quiescent interval of a month or two, when 

 the activity of the plant is renewed in a similar manner. The 

 typical form of the Hevea tree, for the first two or three years, 

 is slender and whip-like, swaying with the least movement of the 

 air, this being in marked contrast with the rigid and stocky 

 constitution of Castilloa; but during the fourth or fifth year the 

 tree begins to assume a more stable form, when whorls of lat- 

 eral branches, more or less regularly disposed, are developed and 

 steady trunk expanse ensues. 



Hevea, Five Years Old, .\t La Buena Ventura. 

 With reference to the detail of planting distance for Hevea, 



versation with Mr. J. C. Harvey, shortly after that gentleman's experience seems to have definitely relegated very close planting to 



return from London (where he went to attend the recent Inter- the past. Mr. H. A. Wickham, the well-known pioneer of Hevea 



national Rubber Exhibition) that the Director of the Agricultural cultivation in Ceylcn and Malaya, has gone so far as to advo- 



Department of the Indo-French Colonies of Cochin China, in cate planting at such apparently extreme distances as 30 to 40 



