I I. rOBEK I, 1"14 I 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



19 



Some Neglected Near-by Markets — IV. 



SALVADOR. 



Till avcragi \merican who is able to remember the 

 i imes if .ill the Central American Republics feels a 

 distinct pride in his accomplishment and naively n 

 t.i tin' excellence of the memorj which has pn erved this 

 knowledge since hi- grammar -oh. ml da) I'ln arc, in hi- 

 estimation, spots on the map, representing insignificant and 

 ill defined regions outside oi all civilized travel, steaming 

 with tropic heat, inhabited mostly by savages, mosquitoes and 

 boa-constrictors; the chief industry, revolutions, and the chief 

 product, miasmatic fevers. This ignorance is not far from 

 the level of that found in a Few remote corners of New I 

 land, where they believe that all the people west of the 

 Mississippi are a rude, ungodly l"t who carrj revolvers and 

 express their emotions in broadsides of profanity. 



But the man who i- proudlj able to reel off the names ol 

 the five republics — or six, if «t count Panama — will decline 

 to locate them unless he has a map at hand. When he looks 

 at the map he fixes their relative importance or unimpor- 

 tance by the space which they occupj and, accordingly, gives 

 Salvador a very low place. It is true that, on a map of North 

 Vmerica, Salvador does not make a very big showing, but 

 there are considerations other than geographical extent. The 

 county having the least area of all the counties in the United 

 States is \evv York County. New York, which i- not a 

 negligible quantity in the affairs of the nation. Salvador 

 has a population as great as that of the State "i Kansas, 

 though its area is less than that of any American State except 

 Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. This is a point 



well worth the exporter's attention, A sparsely settled tcr 

 ritory may have a great future, hut a thickly settled country 

 has an indubitable present. \nd there is no need to argue 

 the elementary proposition that in a densely settled com- 

 munity the problems of transportation and distribution are 

 reduced to a minimum. Salvador has a population of about 

 250 to the square mile, a densitj nearly ten times as great 

 as that of the United States. This is made more impressive 

 when we reflect that a like density would give our average 

 American townships of thirty -ix square miles a population 

 ol no less than nine thousand The population of Salvador, 

 moreover, is industrious, thrifty and peaceable. \boitt half 

 of it is of Indian blood, while the remainder is chiefly of 

 mixed European and Indian extraction. A minority of pure 

 whites exists, forming a sort of natural aristocracy of wealth 

 and education, hut separated by no hard and fast lines from 

 the cultured element among those of mixed race. The m 

 element is small, chiefly foreign and confined to the 



coast towns. 



Are tin- Indians civilized? They are. and have been since 

 long before the coming ol the white man. They belong to 

 the Tlasaltecan branch of the Aztec family, v mitted 



to their Spanish conquerors exactlj as our own Saxon an- 

 cestors submitted to the Normans; and the reproach is no 

 greater in one case than in the other. I 'i iceabh unarmed, 

 unorganized farmers, they were no match lot trained soldiers 

 equipped with the best weapons the times afforded and urged 

 on by greed ol gold and power. Hut the Indian, as did tin 

 Saxon, has stayed and multiplied and it is in. longer a re- 

 proach to belong to tin conquered race. 



If we imagine the population of Kansas settled on 10 of 

 tin 105 counties of that State, we would see that it was well 

 worthy the attention of our manufacturers. And when we 

 realize that Salvador is little further from New York than 

 Kansas itself, it is really tune for our business men to sit up 

 and take notice. Only a thrifty and industrious people can 



exist in such numbers on 50 small a territory, and such a 



pei pic are always tomers. The farms of Salvador 



are really a serii ardens, intei ed with villages and 



towns. The soil in mail) district- is fourteen leet deep and 

 everywhere oi amazing tcrtiliiy. In fact, this very fertility- 

 is the chief difficulty with which the tiller of the soil I 



■ ii.i I In ue ( ds spring up behind him in the row In 

 A few weeks ol tallow turns his garden into a miniature 

 jungle. Hut. as may be imagined, in. sl lr tlnul and slipshod 

 methods are followed in a country which supports 251 



m quare mile more than one person to every three acres 

 — and exports millions ol dollar-' worth of agricultural p 

 UCts Within the limits of this little republic is grown ever;. 

 garden product of the tropii and temperate zones The hot 

 coastal belt is but little more than ten miles wide, thi 

 inainder of the country being salubrious uplands, with lorest 

 covered mountains intersected with fertile and cultivated 

 \ alleys. 



The far-famed Balsam of Peru is a product of Salvador 

 and nowhere else. Its misnomer dates back to the lime 

 when Spanish America was either "Mexico" or "Peru" and 



' Van American Union. 



\ Balsam Trek in \ Forest in S.vi.\ 



everything coming bj way of Panama was considered 

 Peruvian. It is the product of a leguminous tree known as 

 Myrospermum (eriiraCj but which the botanists of thi i 

 very reasonably ask to have called Myrospermum salvadorense. 

 It would seem, however, that the generic synonym, Myroxil 

 preferable, in view of the manner in which the character 

 product is obtained. It is a lofty tree, frequently 

 a hundred feet in height, with the characteristic fl< 



