172 



A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



later, when we started out on our tour of inspection, the Importer, who 

 would not ride horseback, was fitted out with a sort of buckboard, 

 drawn by a mule and driven by a Southern darkey known as Jake. 

 The rest of us rode horses. 



Almost the first thing that struck me about the planting problem 

 down there was the remarkable prevalence of the morning glory vine. 

 Just as soon as the land is cleared and planted it takes possession, and 

 if it were not cut down constantly around the young rubber trees, it 

 would most effectually smother them. When the trees get a good start, 

 the vine suddenly dies out and the grass comes in. My belief had always 

 been that for grass to get into rubber was fatal to the growth and pro- 



' 



RESIDENCE OF SIM IRON. 



ductiveness of the tree. I saw acres down there, however, with the 

 grass growing among the three-year-old trees, and they were apparently 

 as healthy and thrifty as they could possibly be. A little later the shade 

 of the tree seems to discourage the growth of the grass, and in one 

 planting, where the trees were between four and five years old, the 

 grass had practically disappeared. 



The refusal of the Castilloa to put up with too much water was 

 emphasized by the fact that a section of land, containing perhaps ten 

 acres, on the Manhattan plantation, where during the heavy rains the 

 water had not drained away quickly enough, most of the trees had died. 



