fntrofcuction. 375 



I saw in the India- Rubber World of New York, of March 15, 1894, 

 that a valuable book on india-rubber had been published in Colombo, 

 Ceylon, by A. M. & J. Ferguson, in 1887, entitled India-Rubber and 

 Gutta-Percha: Being a Compilation of all the Available Information Re- 

 specting the Trees Yielding these Articles of Commerce and their Cultiva- 

 tion" and that is the first intimation I had of any book on that subject. 

 I am sorry that I have not the time to compare the information con- 

 tained in that book with my surmises about India-rubber culture. 



I am also sorry that my present duties should preclude my revising 

 this paper, which I publish now exactly as it came out over a quarter of a 

 century ago. All I could at present add is that the estimate of the 

 cost of a plantation, while perfectly reliable in 1872, would be subject 

 to serious changes, for the reasons stated in the introduction to Coffee 

 Culture in Mexico. In so far as the profits are concerned, I would be 

 still more conservative, and reduce them very materially. 



As I am the only one who has written on India-rubber culture in 

 Mexico, and have studied the subject as far as it was possible under 

 the circumstances, I have received frequent calls for my paper on the 

 subject, especially from citizens of the United States, and to satisfy 

 their demands, I have decided to give to the public the following article 

 on the subject, without revising it in any way. 



WASHINGTON, D. C., February 24, 1898. 



