Distance between tbe IRubber^Urees, 389 



4. DISTANCE NEEDED IN PLANTING RUBBER-TREES. 



The distance apart at which rubber-trees should be planted, is a 

 question which, although apparently secondary, is really an important 

 one. If from a false economy they be planted closer than is proper, 

 the trees will interfere with each other, and will consequently become 

 stunted; while if planted a greater distance apart than is absolutely 

 necessary, there will be a waste of ground and a great increase in the 

 cost of cultivation, besides the cost of fencing, watching, and such 

 other outlays as may be needed, when the plantation is in a state of full 

 development and production. The importance of space is practically 

 illustrated in coffee and sugar-cane plantations: it is seen that on the 

 same land the returns of coffee-trees planted at a distance of three 

 metres apart are double the returns of those growing at a metre and 

 a half or two metres apart from each other. From this it will be per- 

 ceived how great a difference in the yield of the rubber-tree the distance 

 at which they are planted makes. 



The prevailing opinion among the agriculturists of Soconusco, is 

 that a space of two or two and a half metres from tree to tree, on every 

 side, is all that is required. It seems to me that it ought to be much 

 more. If coffee, which is a shrub seldom attaining a height of more 

 than three or four metres, and whose foliage is, at most, three metres 

 in diameter, requires in order to give an abundant crop to be planted 

 at a distance of three yards from tree to tree, is it reasonable to sup- 

 pose that the rubber-tree, which grows to a very large size, should be 

 planted at the same distance or less ? 



In my opinion, planting ought not to be done at a distance of less 

 than five metres, and even this would be too small for trees over thirty 

 years old. The trunks of those on the farm of Mr. Manchinelli, which 

 were of that age, measure, as I have already stated, two metres in 

 diameter, and the circle formed by their foliage is between twenty and 

 twenty-five feet in diameter. 



The only objection there can be to leaving a greater space between 

 the trees, and one which may, in some cases, be of sufficient weight 

 to reduce it to less than five metres indicated as the best, is the neces- 

 sity of economy, inasmuch as the cost of the grove would increase in 

 proportion to the distance apart at which the trees are planted, as 

 will be demonstrated in the following chapter. 



5. CARE REQUIRED FOR THE CULTURE OF THE RUBBER-TREE. 



The hardiness of the rubber-tree greatly simplifies its culture, and 

 causes this to be proportionately cheap. In the low, hot, and damp 

 lands favorable to its growth, fertility is so great that the labor con- 

 sists, more than in anything else, in struggling against the luxuriance 



