Best Climate for "Rubber Culture* 385 



are used to shade the coffee- and cocoa-plants; and that of Hatillo, 

 owned by an agricultural society in the State of Veracruz. 



I have been told, also, that in Nicaragua and Honduras, some 

 plantations have been formed as experiments, the principal one be- 

 longing to Dr. Gauffrau, on the bay of Realejo, near the port of Corinto, 

 in the former republic. 



These explanations being made, I shall now proceed to discuss, in 

 regular order, each of the points specified at the beginning of this 

 chapter. 



I. CLIMATE AND LAND BEST ADAPTED TO THE CULTURE OF THE 



RUBBER-TREE. 



The fact that thus far rubber is not the product of a cultivated 

 tree, does not preclude the possibility of one answering the ques- 

 tion : What climate and land are best suited to its development ? 



The best climate is the hottest, and the best land the dampest and 

 the nearest to the seashore or to the low banks of rivers. Wherever 

 rubber-trees are found these conditions are present. 



Those of Para are found on the banks of the Amazon. The rub- 

 ber land that I have personally examined is in the Department of 

 Soconusco, in the State of Chiapas. Soconusco forms a plain from 

 six to twelve leagues wide, which terminates at the Pacific and ascends 

 gradually and almost imperceptibly to the base of the Cordilleras, 

 where the ascent is steeper, although still gradual. This plain is 

 crossed by numerous rivers which come down from the Cordilleras 

 and empty into the sea. The climate is hotter in the low than in the 

 high lands above the sea-level. One notes the great number of rubber- 

 trees, all small ones, the large ones having been cut down to extract 

 their sap, that are in the forests on the plain, and the number in- 

 creases notably as one approaches the sea, and diminishes in the same 

 proportion as one goes from the shore toward the Cordilleras; even at 

 the base of these mountains, at an elevation of twenty -five hundred 

 feet above the sea-level, and in lands suitable for the culture of coffee, 

 some rubber-trees are found, but they are exceedingly rare. 



To establish a plantation it is necessary, before everything else, to 

 select the ground; this should be in the climate best adapted to the 

 development of the tree, as the expenses would be almost the same 

 everywhere; while the trees will grow in much less time under favor- 

 able than under unfavorable conditions, and give greater returns when 

 they begin to bear, in the former than in the latter case. In the Dis- 

 trict of Soconusco alone, there is sufficient land to plant several 

 millions of rubber-trees; and I believe that a great many localities 

 could be found on both sides of the coasts of Mexico, that are equally 



