Jflora, 47 



the world's rubber supply, which is so intimately associated with the 

 existence of these industries. 



Thinking that a plantation of india-rubber trees would be very re- 

 munerative, I devoted considerable attention to that subject, and in 

 1872 started one of 100,000 trees in a place admirably located for the 

 purpose, bordering on the Pacific Ocean and between two large rivers, 

 in the same district of Soconusco. In an article published in 1872, 

 under the title " India- Rubber Culture in Mexico," I compiled all the 

 information on the subject that I could obtain, supplementing it with 

 the experience that I had acquired. Unfortunately, for reasons of a 

 political nature, I had to abandon that plantation, and when the trees- 

 that I had planted grew large enough to yield rubber, they were tapped 

 by the natives and entirely destroyed, but my work gave me an experi- 

 ence which I considered of great value. For further information on 

 this subject I refer the reader to the above mentioned article. 



The india-rubber trees that grow in Mexico are not the Haevca 

 guianensis that grows in Brazil, but the Castilloa elastica, and if we 

 have any of the Haevea guianensis I have not seen them. 



Enough has been written lately on rubber cultivation to show that 

 the profits, in Mexico at least, would be very great ; indeed, 300 per 

 cent, on the capital invested is a possible return, after five years, from 

 cultivating Castilloa elastica in that Republic. This is a return which 

 provides plenty of margin for contingencies. Rubber-growing is no- 

 longer in the experimental stage, as witness the plantation of La Esme- 

 ralda, in Oaxaca, to which further reference is made below. Culti- 

 vated india-rubber plantations are few, for the reason that, in some 

 degree like the coffee plant, the india-rubber tree requires a long period 

 of continuous cultivation before making any return to the cultivator. 

 Mexico affords excellent opportunities for the development of this 

 admittedly profitable industry. On this point the authority of Sir 

 Henry Nevil Dering, the British Minister to Mexico, who, in a recent 

 report to the Foreign Office on the cultivation of india-rubber, says : 

 " The regions most favorable for the growth of this important, yet 

 rarely cultivated, india-rubber tree are the plains of Pochutla, 

 Oaxaca, and also along the banks of the Copalita River where the 

 tree is found in astonishing numbers. Few are the plantations of 

 india-rubber trees existing in the Republic of Mexico. The principal 

 one is La Esmeralda, in Juquila, Oaxaca, which has over 200,000 

 trees, eight years old." According to the same report the total ex- 

 pense for five years' cultivation of a " rubber plantation of 100,000 

 trees will not exceed $25,000 in silver and the yield of 100,000 trees 

 at the first year's harvest will bring the planter $120,000, besides the 

 product obtained from the corn, vanilla beans, cacao, and bananas 

 raised from side planting. The net profit on the investment, after de- 



