July i, igoS.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



325 



The News of Rubber Culture. 



MEXICO SHIPPING PLANTATION RUBBER. 



TI I li most ck-fiiiite and tangiljle inforniatinn yet made public 

 in regard to plantation rubber in Mexico occurs in 

 the report of Mr. Lincoln Fishback, of Greeley, Colo- 

 rado, who was selected by his fellow investors in the Monte 

 Cristo Rubber Plantation Co.. of Greeley, to visit their 

 property in Mexico, which report has appeared in pamphlet 

 form. The Monte Cristo plantation was begun only two 

 years ago and of course is not producing rubber as yet, but 

 after looking over the property and noting the progress 

 made it occurred to Mr. Fishback to investigate reports 

 which have been heard from 

 time to time that plantation rub- 

 ber is actually being exported 

 from Mexico. 



He learned that sucli rubber was 

 being shipped from Frontera, a sea- 

 port, and that the source of this 

 was in the neighborhood of San 

 Juan Bautista, in the state of 'I'a- 

 basco, which is reached by sailing 

 up the river Grijalva from Fron- 

 tera. On .-Xpril 14 Inst Mr. h'i^li- 

 back and the manager of the Monte 

 Cristo company's plantation — which 

 by the way, is not a great distance 

 from Frontera — arrived at San 

 Juan Bautista, which they found 

 to be the largest city and commer- 

 cial center in that part of Mexico, 

 with a population of 12,000. They 

 bore a letter from the United 

 States consular agent at Frontera 

 to Carl Schweickhardt. agent for 

 Harburgcr & Stack, of New York, 

 who opened his books and gave fig- 

 ures of rubber shipments by his 

 house from San Juan as follows : 

 Pounds. Pound.s. 



In 1902 .. 7.404 In 1905. 88.044 

 In 1903 . . 44,000 In 1906. 17J.488 

 In 1904 . . 60.013 In 1907. 182.219 



Mr. Fishback proceeds: "He 

 stated that of the List year's pur- 

 chases less than 4,000 pounds was 

 wild rubber, the balance coming 

 from cultivated rubber orchards. 

 He also stated that he thought 

 other buyers in San Juan had 

 bought half as much more, which 

 would make total shipments from 

 San Juan in 1907 about 273,000 

 pounds. All this rubber came from orchards raised and owned 

 by Mexicans. Mr Schweickhardt was of opinion, that because 

 of crude methods and only one tapping per year but a small 

 part of the rubber was being gathered that could he taken from 

 the trees without injuring them." 



The house of Harburger & Stack, mentioned here, is an im- 

 portant one, and an illustration of their store in San Juan was 

 given in The Indi.\ Rubber World, June i, 1908 (page 291'). 

 The above figures have been sent to 'Washington by the consular 

 agent at Frontera, and appeared in Daily Consular and Trade 

 Reports for June 5. Their interest may be heightened by a com- 

 parison with the figures of Frontera's rubber exports in the fiscal 

 year 1897-98—64.513 pounds all told. In that year Mexico's 



\'iEW ON Pl.\nt.\cion Buen.^ Ventur.\. 



[Estate of Mr. James C. Harvey (shown in the picture), ir 

 \'era Cruz. Mexico. Planted CastiUoa rubtier in t.lp[>ing 

 with bananas on the riglit, planted to check the grass. J 



total exports of rubber of all kinds were only 192,324 

 pounds. 



Mr. Fishback found that most of the rubber referred to came 

 from the vicinity of Teapa, a town about 60 miles distant, in 

 the state of Chiapas, and thither he went, on horseback. On the 

 hist 20 miles of the ride he passed continuously through rubber 

 which had been planted mostly as shade for cacao, so that the 

 rubber trees had had to share with another crop the fertility 

 of the soil. But in spite of this the trees were splendid speci- 

 mens, many of them averaging 10 inches in diameter at 10 years 

 old. 



On the plantation "La Asuncion,"" 

 owned by Aristeo Gonzales, there- 

 are about 32,000 rubber trees, ot 

 whicli 25,000 are of tappable size, 

 and 65,000 cacao trees. Their chief 

 attention having been given to 

 cacrto, the rubber tapping has been 

 done only in a desultory manner, 

 and no statistics have heen kept. 

 On the neighborii^g plantation 

 "Mcrclia," owned by Senora Do- 

 lores Medina Alfardo, there are 

 about 40,000 rubber trees. Here, 

 too, cacao growing is the chief bus- 

 iness, the rubber tapping being in- 

 termittent, insufficient, and by im- 

 proper methods, the machete being 

 used exclusively instead of a rubber 

 tappii:g knife. They gathered last 

 year, however, 8.500 pounds of rub- 

 ber, and Mr. Fishback thinks that 

 with proper management this prod- 

 uct could have been trebled. 



Mr. Schweickhardt is quoted as 

 saying that he had taken 5 ounces 

 of rubber from a 7 year old tree at 

 a single tapping, and Mr. Fishback 

 sees no reason why several tappings 

 a year cannot be made. In the 

 Teapa district he found the natives 

 tapping rubber trees as young as 

 4 years. 



.\Ir. Fishback spent 10 days vis- 

 iting 16 American rubber planta- 

 tions, and several Mexican rubber 

 plantations elsewhere than in the 

 Teapa district. He reports : 

 "Frankly I saw much of failure.— 

 The same results will follow with 

 the lack of culture in raising pota- 

 toes or corn. On every plantatior> 

 visited I saw the proofs of what good culture will do, what bad 

 culture has done." Where proper soil had been selected and 

 the trees had good care Mr. Fishback found fine rubber trees — 

 "the evidence of successful rubber culture, the proofs of the 

 apparent merit of the enterprise." 



A leading rubber importing firm write to The Indl\ Rubber 

 World: "We are beginning to get consignments of CaslilUa 

 rubber from the plantations in Mexico, and to-day received a 

 letter advising Boo pounds of 'creamed' from one plantation 

 and as much more from a neighboring plantation, the latter 

 gathered and cured we know not how. We are of the opinion 

 that if we make a point of it we can get quite a little Mexican 

 plantation rubber now. and will receive increased quantities as 



