192 



A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 



Germans, and substantial banks, the country being on a gold basis, with 

 the colon as a unit of value, worth forty-six cents in American money. 

 The population of the country is three hundred and forty thousand, 

 none of whom are Indians. Spanish is the language in general use, but 

 almost everybody understands English, and it is a delight to mingle with 

 the people, for they have none of the sullen air so prevalent in certain 

 parts of Spanish America. 



During our stay in the country, we put up at the Hotel Imperial, 

 where we had comfortable rooms and enjoyed an excellent table. As a 

 matter of course, we asked many questions about rubber culture, but 

 from the natives or the resident Americans we developed little informa- 



CENTRAL PARK, SAN JOSE. 



tion. One of the latter explained it by saying that in that country at 

 the present time bananas were the whole game, because they gave 

 quicker results and had behind them the support of the United Fruit 

 Co., who were perfectly willing that the planters should make a good 

 thing out of their fruit. One native explained the lack of intestest in 

 rubber planting by telling us solemnly that rubber seeds planted by man 

 would -not develop into productive trees. He said that nature's way of 

 distributing the.^seeds was for the birds to eat them in order to get the 

 sweet pulp with which they are surrounded, and mingled with their 

 droppings, the seed grew into a tree that was a rubber producer. If 

 it did not go through this preparatory process, it amounted to nothing. 



