THE INDIA-RUBBER CULTURE IN MEXICO. 



i. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is with a feeling of extreme diffidence that I undertake to write 

 upon a subject on which I can only speak as a layman, inasmuch as 

 neither my few studies nor my habitual occupations have initiated me 

 theoretically or practically in agriculture, botany, chemistry, or any 

 other of the sciences a knowledge of which is necessary to be able to 

 speak intelligently of a branch of agricultural industry that I consider 

 as being destined to attain a great development in Mexico, and to ex- 

 ercise a vast influence upon its future. 



My desire in calling the attention of my fellow-citizens to the ex- 

 ploitation of a source of wealth which, I do not doubt, will, in a few 

 years, assure their future, is the sole motive that induces me to write 

 these lines, even at the risk of sometimes falling into an error of more 

 or less importance. I trust that this explanation will serve as an ex- 

 cuse for the inaccuracies which may be found in this paper, and I 

 shall consider my object in writing it attained, if competent and prac- 

 tical persons will kindly point out the gaps or defects that must be in 

 it, so that the subject may be the more clearly explained. 



As another excuse for the insufficiency of this paper, however, I 

 think it proper to mention the scarcity of books upon the subject. 

 From the time that my attention was first called to the importance of 

 the culture of the rubber-tree in Mexico, I endeavored to provide my- 

 self with such books on this subject as might have been published in 

 Europe and in the United States. I applied to persons in New York, 

 and to the principal European book-stores, but their answers were that 

 they had met with no book treating of the rubber-plant. In some 

 encyclopedias, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, the New American 

 Encyclopedia, and other books of reference, I found articles concerning 

 the manufacture of rubber rather than the tree that produces it. 



During my recent travels in the Eastern States of Mexico, I en- 



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