/A r COSTA RICA 195 



In this connection, a chat that I had with Mr. John M. Keith, the 

 former planting expert of the United Fruit Co., is apropos. He said 

 frankly that in that part of Costa Rica he did not think there was much 

 land that was available for Castilloa growing; that it was too wet; and 

 that he had discovered that wild Castilloss that grew in wet places gave 

 so thin a latex that the rubber was not worth gathering. My friend, 

 the planter, had, while I was in New York, told me of another type 

 of planting that he had done, by clearing wide pathways through the 

 forest and planting Castillo as so thickly that they took entire possession 

 of the ground. With some little trouble we finally located two of these 

 plantings, and they settled in my mind forever the practicability of this 



RUBBER AND BANANAS. 



sort of cultivation. The Castilloas had grown like weeds, but they 

 looked more like fishpoles than rubber trees. By cutting out some of 

 them and giving the sun a chance, no doubt something could be done, 

 but unless some such measures were instituted, it would be years before 

 the tree trunks would have bark surface enough to do anything at* all. 



That the trouble with the first planting was not due to the presence 

 of the bananas was proved by a look we had at a small plantation run 

 by a German, where the ground was much better drained, and where 

 the trees looked stocky and thrifty. We were also told that on the 

 Northern Railway on some of the uplands, the planters were putting 



