RUBBER 705 



another estate, almost adjoining, I have for some four 

 years been a director of the British company owning it. 



The La Zacualpa Estates, now comprising over 12,500 

 acres of cultivated Castilloa rubber, are owned by two 

 American companies, with headquarters at San Fran- 

 cisco. 



In 1900 the cultivation on a considerable scale of 

 Castilloa rubber on the La Zacualpa Estates had just 

 been commenced. I should remark, however, that there 

 were at that time a few thousands of cultivated Castillca 

 rubber trees reported to be from 12 to 14 years old. The 

 previous Mexican owner of the property had been a 

 friend of Matias Romero, once Ambassador at Washing- 

 ton, and the father of rubber cultivation in Mexico, and 

 there is little doubt that Romero suggested the planting' 

 of those few thousand trees. They had been tapped very 

 frequently before 1900, and they have been tapped twice 

 a year (if not more often) ever since. They are now from 

 27 to 29 years old; their exact age is not known. They 

 were fairly well planted, about 18 ft. by 12 ft., so far as I 

 recollect. A few of them have died. I saw the survivors 

 about three years ago, and those survivors, which have 

 been tapped regularly for about twenty years, constitute 

 the most favourable evidence as to the continuous yield- 

 ing of the Castilloa rubber tree under cultivation in 

 Mexico with which I am acquainted. I will deal with the 

 amount of their yield presently. 



While thus diverging from the strict terms of the 

 reference, I would like to say that before visiting the 

 estates in question I paid a visit to a Castilloa rubber 

 plantation in the Mexican State of Oaxaca which had 

 been honoured by mention in a British Foreign Office 

 paper. I am afraid that paper, written and issued in all 

 good faith, cost British and other investors a great deal 

 of money; it certainly is a striking example of the un- 

 wisdom of accepting evidence at second hand. The 

 plantation, the famous, or notorious, Esmeralda, one of 

 the earliest planted in Mexico, owed its notoriety to that 

 Foreign Office paper. I found in 1900 some 40,000 

 Castilloa trees 8 to 10 years old, very well planted in 

 straight rows, at a fairly good distance apart for that 



