178 A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 



was only experimental, and that he expected before long to work down 

 to a simpler and more practical system. At the same time, he claimed, 

 that cumbersome as his present process was, it 

 proved most thoroughly the profitableness of 

 rubber planting. 



During the rest of our stay on this group of 

 plantations, we made our headquarters at Man- 

 hattan, riding out in various directions and ex- 

 amining the rubber, and discussing it with vari- 

 ous planters, who were much interested in mak- 

 ing a success of it. There are in the vicinity, at a 

 conservative estimate, about four hundred thous- 

 and cultivated Castilloa trees, the largest single 

 plantation being the Canada plantation, of which 

 Mr. Waldron is manager and chief owner. This 

 plantation has about two hundred thousand trees ; 

 next to that comes the Manhattan, with about 

 one hundred and forty thousand. This group of 

 plantations lies in the form of an eclipse, about 

 five miles long and two miles broad. 



After having visited the typical plantations, 

 collected samples, and secured all the infor- 

 mation possible, the whole crowd saw us down 

 to the Cukra pier, where we again embarked on 

 the Nat. Jr., and started down the river on our 

 way back to Bluefields. 



We reached this Americanized city early in 

 the evening, and found that a fruiter was starting 

 for New Orleans the next morning, and that the 

 governor had promised to hold it for us, so that 

 we could not miss it. In the meantime, our 

 friends began to make it easy for us to leave the 

 country. One of the first things to be done in 

 leaving Nicaragua is to secure a passport, for 

 which one pays a dollar. Mine described me as 



being- about thirty-five vears old and having red 

 "CASTILLOA' STEM J 



ATTACKED BY SCALE '- na i r > but so l n g as it sufficed to let me out of the 

 country I didn't care, particularly as the descrip- 

 tion of the Importer and the Manufacturer were even less flattering. 

 I have already mentioned that the custom house at Bluefields is 



