706 RUBBER 



time (some 12 ft. by 12 ft.), and some 50,000 younger 

 trees. The older trees had been frequently tapped, but I 

 failed to find any record of rubber sold, and there were no 

 samples at the Hacienda. The evidence of tapping was 

 in plenty. The trees had been heavily scored with 

 machetes. I tried perhaps a score of them. There was 

 no latex, so I had holes dug in the ground in the 

 endeavour to find out what was the matter. At from 



2 to 3 ft. from the surface I found a sort of con- 

 glomerate of limestone, practically a concrete; the 

 manager called it " hard-pan." It had resisted the 

 tap roots, which were curled up towards the surface. 

 Those trees, which had a fairly thriving appeararice, have 

 never yielded any rubber to speak of, and never can. I 

 mention them as an example of the sort of land on which 

 not to plant Castilloa rubber. 



Methods employed in Tapping Plantation Castilloa 

 Rubber Trees in Mexico. 



Previously to 1903 the only tapping tool employed was 

 the machete, a kind of sword or sabre, with a blade about 



3 ft. long, used for all kinds of agricultural purposes, 

 such as chopping down trees, clearing undergrowth, 

 making hillocks and holes for planting rubber seeds and 

 seedlings, and for purposes of offence, as killing snakes, 

 and, incidentally, men. A really sharp machete was, and 

 is, rather a rarity, consequently the result of tapping 

 Castilloa rubber trees with it was murderous. Greai 

 gashes were inflicted anywhere, at all angles, anyhow. 

 The deeper the cut the more latex or so the Indian 

 tapper appeared to think and in consequence there are 

 now practically no wild Castilloa rubber trees of tappable 

 size to be found in Mexico, except perhaps in some dense 

 and almost impenetrable forest. One would think that the 

 murderous machete would never be used in plantations, 

 but in 1900 and later it was the only tapping tool employed 

 on all the estates I have mentioned, and on two or more 

 of the estates the older trees are suffering now from its 

 use. As to Esmeralda, it would have made little differ- 

 ence if the trees had been tapped with woodmen's axes. 



