384 IFnbta^lRixbber Culture in /I&ejico. 



and, concerning others, one must accept deductions which, in my 

 opinion, are well worthy of consideration. 



Before discussing the above questions in detail, I deem it opportune 

 to state, that the principal difficulty to be encountered in dealing with 

 the subject, is the fact that, so far, rubber is in no part of the world, 

 that I know of, the product of cultivated trees, but of wild ones. The 

 largest part of the rubber consumed in the world coming from the 

 Province of Para, in Brazil, and this rubber being of the best quality, 

 and always obtaining the highest price in the market, it seemed to me 

 that it could be cultivated advantageously. 



Happening to be in the city of Tapachula on the 24th of September 

 of the present year (1872), I wrote a letter to the United States Consul 

 at Para, requesting him to furnish me with detailed information upon 

 almost the very same points enumerated at the beginning of this 

 chapter. The answer, to which I shall refer later, reached me in the 

 City of Mexico. For the present, it suffices for my purpose to quote 

 here a paragraph from a communication upon the subject, addressed 

 to the State Department by Mr. James B. Bond, United States Consul 

 at Para, dated November 5, 1870, which is on page 60 of the Annual 

 Report on Commercial Relations between the United States and Foreign 

 Nations, for the year ending September 30, 1870, transmitted February 

 3, 1871, to the House of Representatives at Washington by the Secre- 

 tary of State. This paragraph is as follows: 



Rubber is not the product of a cultivated tree : it is extracted from trees in the 

 forests, and the government, in no way whatever, claims anything from those who 

 take them out of national lands. It has been asserted that the trees from which the 

 rubber is obtained are being exhausted in the forests in the immediate proximity to 

 the markets, either because they die or because they give but little sap owing to their 

 being too frequently tapped. But the area of the production is so vast, and the means 

 of reaching the most distant localities increase so rapidly, that no immediate diminu- 

 tion is anticipated. On the contrary, it is possible that it will increase for several 

 years. 1 



From the investigations which I have made, it results that not until 

 a very short time ago did the rubber-tree begin to be cultivated ; that 

 the attempts at planting of which I have any knowledge have been on 

 a very small scale and so very few and recently made that they can- 

 not serve for the purpose of this paper. 



The principal plantations of which I have any knowledge, are the 

 Zanj6n Seco, in the Department of Soconusco, made by D. Jos Maria 

 Chac6n ; that on the farm of San Isidro, the property af Mr. William 

 Nelson, situated in the jurisdiction of Mazatenango, in the District of 

 Suchitepequez, in the Republic of Guatemala, where the rubber-trees 



1 This is a retranslation from the Spanish translation of the English original. 



