162 RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 



arranged for an exploring trip with him later, and the time had come to 

 part. I tried hard to get him to visit New York with me, but with the 

 true tropical dread of pneumonia and grippe, he sturdily refused. With 

 a simple handshake we parted, but I wish he could have looked into my 

 heart, and read there the gratitude that I felt, and how I appreciated the 

 hospitality and consideration that he had shown to the tenderfoot who 

 dropped in so suddenly upon him, rode his best horse, stole the affections 

 of his parrot, and wore a hole in his favorite canvas chair. 



On my return to the City of Mexico almost the first people that I 

 met were Messrs. Warren and William Fish, Mjr. Charles E. Sieler, Mr. 

 S. D. Dorman, and Dr. W. S. Cockrell, all of whom have interests down 

 in the Trinidad River district. I had met these gentlemen before, with 

 the exception of the last named, and as he has been interested in rubber 

 cultivation for nine years, I was glad to get an expression of opinion 

 from him. He is a very earnest advocate of close planting. I believe 

 he laid it down as a rule that the distances between the trees should be 

 six feet and six inches. He has also gone into the subject of smothering 

 the grass by the use of the cow pea, and strongly recommends the whip- 

 poorwill variety. He said that his own observations proved that when 

 the Castilloa was planted in a soil that consisted of a thin layer of loam 

 over gravel, the trees did very well for three or four years, and after 

 that seemed not only to stop growing, but that they produced very little 

 latex. 



His remarks remind me that in transferring my notes I left out my 

 visit to Filisola, a plantation that is not only an acknowledged failure, 

 but one that is practically abandoned. As the record of failure is often 

 of more value than is the story of any number of successes, I am going to 

 add it right here. 



It was hot awfully hot as we climbed up the hillside to the 

 rubber trees. On the way we walked in single file, constantly thrashing 

 our leggings with switches to dislodge the clinging pinoleos. On the 

 rolling ground above the landing, we found a stand of trees, said to be 

 seven thousand in number, planted about twelve feet apart. Most of 

 them were in the sun, but quite a lot were in among banana trees, and 

 had good shade. Those in the sun were knee deep in grass, which was 

 not of one year's growth, but showed a permanent sod. Those in the 

 shade were free from grass. All of the trees, however, looked aged, not 

 in size, but from the wrinkled condition of the bark, and the gray lichen 

 that covered it. Yet those trees were but seven years old. They yielded 

 some latex, but the most optimistic seller of rubber planting stock would 



