ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC 



141 



rich, rolling land, all covered with Castillo a trees about a year old. We 

 rode over this whole planting, visited the four camps where the native 

 workmen live in palm thatched houses, and examined the rubber trees on 

 the hilltops, on side hills, and in the valleys, and when we were told 

 that the stand of rubber embraced fifteen hundred acres, all cleared, 

 burned, and planted in one short season, and that there were fully two 

 million healthy trees, we fell to congratulating Manager Luther on the 

 accomplishment of so marvelous a task. It took so long to do the whole 

 of the sightseeing that it was dark when we entered the forest again for 

 our two or three-mile return ride. Our horses knew the way, however, 

 and brought us safely through, and an hour later we were on the launch, 

 steaming back to Minatitlan. The voyage was without special incident, 

 unless one were to cite the clouds of white moths that filled the air until 



STEAMER "DOS RIOS" ON THE COATZACOALCOS. 



it looked as if it were snowing, and which finally drove us to cover in 

 the cabin. 



The next day we took in a plantation far up the Coachapa River, 

 owned by a wealthy native, Senor Sanchez. His interests were chiefly 

 in cattle, although he had a little grove of wild seedling Castilloas about 

 ten years old, which were from sixteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and 

 perhaps thirty feet high. These we tapped in all sorts of ways, got an 

 abundance of milk, and incidentally proved that neither native nor white 

 man can tap a tree successfully without much practice and skill. 



Indeed, the next great problem that is to confront the rubber 

 planters is that of tapping and preparing for market. One has only 

 to look at the wild trees in the forest and see how they have been hacked 



