186 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[March i, 1904. 



to devote a considerable acreage to grazing. The circular to 

 the investors stated that about 5000 acres had been planted 

 with rubber trees, forming the largest rubber plantation in 

 Mexico and probably in the world. 



THE PLAYA VICENTE PLANTATION CO. 



[Plantation near Playa Vicente, state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. Office: No. 245 

 Main street, Dallas, Texas.] 



Incorporated under Colorado laws ; paid up capital, $100,- 

 000. Location on the isthmus of Tehuantepec, on the Tese- 

 choacan river, 18 miles from Perez, on the Vera Cruz and Pa- 

 cific railway. Own 7200 acres, with some development work 

 begun when the tract was acquired. Some rubber has been 

 planted, 600 trees to the acre, and additional planting is to be 

 done yearly. The proposition to investors is to sell acreage, 

 not stock, at $300 per acre, in installments, if desired. Officers : 

 M. B. Johnson (Dallas, Texas), president ; VV. L. Stowers (Den- 

 ver, Colorado) and E. S. Emmert (Dallas), vice presidents; E. 

 W. Smith (Denver), secretary ; The Fidelity Savings Associ- 

 ation (Denver), treasurer and trustee. Dr. W. S. Cockerill, of 

 the City of Mexico, is the resident Mexican representative of 

 the trustee. Eugene Griffin is plantation manager. 



AORICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION IN MEXICO. 

 The concession for the first agricultural experiment station 

 in Mexico has been made to The Consolidated Ubero Planta- 

 tions Co., through Stiior Thomas Moran, a member of the 

 Mexican house of deputies, and a director of the company 

 named. Under the terms of the concession the company are 

 to erect buildings, on plans to be approved by the government, 

 to cost $7000, after which the government will appropriate 

 $10,000 for the aid of the station, to be conducted on similar 

 lines with agricultural experiment stations in the United 

 States. The company will control the station for five years, 

 when it will become the property of the government. The sta- 

 tion is to be devoted to the testing of tropical plants and seeds 

 from different countries, to determine what are best adapted to 

 Mexico, with the idea of promoting general agriculture in that 

 country. The new station will be located on the company's 

 lands at Ubero, on the isthmus of Tehuantepec; their offices 

 are at No. 89 State street, Boston. 



GOING TO MEXICO TO STUDY RUBBER. 

 A party of twenty-five persons from various parts of the 

 country now at the Waldorf-Astoria have been sightseeing here 

 since Tuesday. They are on their way to Mexico to study rub- 

 ber culture on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, and start at 1 1 A. m. 

 to-day by the Ward Line steamer Havana. The party includes 

 O. W. Kennedy, late general superintendent of the H. C. Frick 

 Coke Co., Uniontown, Penn. ; S. M. Graham, vice president of 

 the Fayette Title and Trust Co., Uniontown, Penn.; J. E. 

 Keith, of the Keith Manufacturing Co., Canton, Ohio ; R. J- 

 Linton, capitalist, Belle Vernon, Penn. ; the Rev. W. D. Atkin- 

 son, Norwalk, Ohio; Dr. E. L. Norton, Madison, Ohio, and 

 John A. Schauweker, of the jewelry firm of Schauweker Broth- 

 ers, of Cleveland Ohio. — New York Tribune, February 18. 



KAMERUN (GERMAN WEST AFRICA.) 

 [See The India Rum kr World, December i, 1901— page 71.] 



The Moliwe Pflanzungs-Gesellschaft, of Hamburg, Germany > 

 at the end of their fourth year (July 1, 1902— June 30, 1903), 

 reported that y6'/ 2 acres of their estate at Moliwe, in this col- 

 ony, had been planted with rubber, 63 acres being devoted to 

 Kickxia elastica, the tree which yields the Lagos rubber. About 

 10 acres are planted to Castilloa elastica, and the remainder to 

 various other species. During the year over 100 acres were pre- 

 pared for the planting of 60,000 Kickxia trees, in addition to 

 the 28,500 now standing. No further planting of this species 



will then be done until the profits of Kickxia culture have been 

 established. The rate of growth of the older trees of this spe- 

 cies has been most satisfactory, while the later planting has suf- 

 fered from the ravages of caterpillars. The Castilloa, as men- 

 tioned in former reports, does not seem so well suited for this 

 district, many of the plants having been destroyed by beetles. 

 Hevea Brasiliensis appears to thrive well, and the company in- 

 tend experimenting with it for shading cacao, for which pur- 

 pose about 3000 seeds have been planted recently at distances 

 of 18x18 meters and also 13KX13K meters. The company 

 was organized in 1899, with acapital of 1,100,000 marks [ = $261,- 

 80c]. The principal interest of the company is in growing ca- 

 cao, of which more than 1000 acres have been planted. 



YIELD OF WILD "CASTILLOA ELASTICA." 

 The Pan-American Planters' Co. (Chicago) in a recent bul- 

 letin present a photograph of the tapping of a wild rubber tree 

 on their estate which measured 75 feet in height and which ap- 

 parently had been tapped many times before and very careless- 

 ly. Owing to this fact and the resulting roughness of the bark, 

 the latex fl jwed irregularly and much of it was lost. Twelve 

 pounds were saved, however, which should have yielded five 

 pounds of dry rubber. The latex was preserved, however, in 

 bottles to be distributed as samples. 



THE PANAGULA RUBBER CO., LIMITED. 

 This company (registered at Colombo October 30), has been 

 organized to acquire from the government of Ceylon a tract of 

 land in the Kelani district, for the forming of a rubber planta- 

 tion. The nominal capital is 500,000 rupees [=$162,216.66], in 

 5000 shares, of which the initial issue is 1250 shares. The reg- 

 istered office is at Hatton. 



TO REPORT ON RUBBER IN LIBERIA. 



Mr. Alexander Whyte, late curator of the botanic station 

 in Uganda (East Africa), has retired from the government ser- 

 vice on a pension, after having spent forty years in botanic 

 work, mostly in the tropics. Evidently he does not intend to 

 stop work, however, since he has undertaken to visit Liberia 

 and make a report on the native rubber and the prospects for 

 cultivation, for the Liberian Rubber Syndicate, Limited. 



GUTTAPERCHA PLANTING IN BORNEO. 



The Netherlands Gutta- Percha Co., Limited, a Singapore 

 venture, has now a steamboat plying in the neighborhood of 

 Banjermassin in its business interests as regards the gathering 

 of Gutta-percha leaves. The company pays a small premium 

 for every newly set out gutta plant. It has about 50,000 guild- 

 ers [=$20,000] available for this purpose in southeast Borneo 

 during the next five years, and reckons then on having 10.- 

 000,000 gutta plants ready for plucking at easily accessible 

 places. The plants set out now are expected to be productive 

 in five years' time. — The Straits Times. 



RUBBER PLANTING COMPANY PUBLICATIONS. 



The Tehuantepec Rubber Culture Co. New York. —Report on plan- 

 tation progress to October, 1903 [4 pages], with financial statement 

 separate. 



Joliet Tropical Plantation Co , Joliet, Illinois=Joliet' Tropical Plan- 

 tation Bulletin. Vol. II, No. 1 — August, 1903. 4 pages. 



Batavia Co , Milwaukee, Wisconsin = Mexico, The Land of Sunshine 

 and Fortune. [Referring to the company's rubber planting proposition.] 



Batavia Co.. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. = Easy Road to Independence 

 [being details of financial plans of their rubber plantation in Mexico]. 

 21 pages. 



Rio Michol Plantation Co., San Francisco— Reports of C. A. West- 

 enberg, president, and Dr. Allen II. Suggett, a stockholder [on a visit 

 to the plantation, in September, 1903]. 6 pages. 



