Septemler I, igoS.J 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



403 



The India Rubber World. The first shows one of the many 

 seed beds for Castiltoa clastica planted at the edge of the forest, 

 the seedlings in this view showing five months' growth. The 

 second picture illustrates three-year-old planted Castilloa trees. 

 The shade from trees of this age causes the plantains to cease 

 to be productive, and they are gradually exterminated by the 

 rubber. 



Campoalegre contains some 4000 planted rubber trees in their 

 fourth year, some 36,000 trees from one to three years old, and 



I'laxted "Castii.i.ii.x Ei..\sti( a" IX 

 [Three-year-old trees on plantation Campoalegre, i 



Ciil.iiMi;i.\. 

 T the Choco region.! 



at" the last report about 200,000 plants in seed beds awaiting 

 transplanting. From now the preparation of seed beds will be 

 an easy matter, as the older trees begin to yield seed crops, 

 whereas previously seeds have had to be gathered from isolated 

 wild trees, either difficult to find, or so remote as to make 

 uncertain the transportation of the seeds before they perished, 



Messrs. Angel and Ferrer market their plantains in Quibdo, 

 sending them up in "dug out" canoes. The plantanos are the 

 staple article of diet of the region, being either masted nr fried. 



Pl.anted "Castilloa Elastica" in Colombia. 



[Specimen of seed beds on plantation Campoalegre, in the Choco regicn.] 



ripe or green ; boiled green, or cut up in stews or with pork 

 and beans. A ripe plantano slit open and powdered with cheese, 

 then roasted and served with butter, is a particular delicacy in 

 the tropics. In Quibdo they sell at from 24 to 80 cents (gold) 

 per ration of 64. The plantain trade at Campoalegre has become 

 so important that the owners have ordered a large towing launch 

 to handle the cargoes, and at the same time facilitate their own 

 visits to the important commercial center Quibdo. Seiior .^ngel 

 is typical of the men who are leading in the regeneration of 

 Colombia under President Reyes's government. He has an in- 



terest in planing mills and a furniture factory at Quibdo, is 

 manager of the large mercantile house of Eladio Ferrer (his 

 father-in-law), and owns valuable interests in mines. Sefior 

 Ferrer is a young man of distinguished family, being a son of 

 the well-known merchant and statesman Don Leoncio Ferrer. 

 So enthusiastic have these gentlemen become with respect to 

 rubber that they plan to have the better part of 2,000,000 trees 

 producing on the 5000 hectares of Campoalegre within ten years. 



Some interesting experiments are being made looking to the 

 planting of the fiber plant "sansaviera" with rubber trees. This 

 would not interfere with the corn crop which should always 

 be planted with the rubber, and would begin to yield within' 

 18 months, and continue to produce after the rubber trees reach 

 a development that would stifle all but a shade loving plant. 

 The indications are that this combination will be successful for 

 developing large areas of the Choco and the great region opened 

 up by the Colombia Central railroad which is now being construc- 

 ted from the gulf of Uraba to the rich interior of Colombia, and is 

 one of the chief of the many agencies that are producing an 

 economic revolution in Colombia. 



.•\ngel and Ferrer were to make a bid fcr the rubber ribbon 

 at the Bogota agricultural fair this summer, which was won 

 last year by the brothers de la Torre with a slab of rubber from 

 their young \tanihot trees. 



AN ALLEGED FRAUD IN RUBBER. 



'T'HE federal grand jury for the northern district of Illinois, 

 •*• at the July term, in Chicago, found indictments against 

 Talton Embry and Hiram E. Rose, charging them with use of the 

 United States mails to defraud, in their capacity respectively as 

 vice-president and secretary of the San Miguel Plantation Co., 

 which purported to be developing a rubber plantation in the 

 state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, with headquarters in Chicago. Capi- 

 ases were issued for these men, who later appeared before the 

 clerk of the United States circuit court at Chicago, and gave bond 

 for their appearance at the next term. At latest accounts no 

 pleas had been filed. The United States attorney advises The 

 I.xdia Rubber World that the trials will take place probably in 

 (Jctober or November. 



The San Miguel Plantation Co. was advertised as a corporation 

 capitalized at $200,000, under the law-s of Illinois. The fifth an- 

 nual report to the investors in the company, dated March i, 

 1906, stated that the company then had under cultivation 400 

 acres in rubber. 450 in sugar cane, and 350 acres in corn. The 

 company did not offer its shares to the public, but issued 2,000 

 bonds — one for each of the 2,000 acres in the property claimed — 

 many of which bonds appear to have been sold at from $250 to 

 $350. Dividends were promised on these bonds from the ex- 

 pected sale of produce, and it appears that money was actually 

 distributed to the investors as follows: In 1901, 7 per cent, on 

 tlie sums actually paid on account by the investors; in 1902, 10 

 per cent. : in 1903 and 1904, 15 per cent, yearly: in 1905, 2 per cent, 

 instead of the "expected" 25 per cent., and in 1906. i per cent., 

 after which payments ceased. 



It was charged before the grand jury that these dividends in- 

 stead of coming from the sale of produce on the San Miguel 

 plantation were paid partly by Embry and Rose from their own 

 pockets, and later from funds paid into the company by bond pur- 

 chasers. It was charged that pictures of the company's planta- 

 tion shown were really taken on another plantation, and that the 

 company had made no sales of produce. The indictment of 

 Embry and Rose followed several months of work carried on 

 by a committee of the investors in the San Miguel company 

 headed by Mr. A. A. Barber, secretary and treasurer of The 

 C. E. Sutton Co., an iron firm, of Toledo, Ohio, represented by 

 Willard L. White, an attorney of Chicago. 



According to the Chicago Tribune, service on Embry was 



