Rubber in para, Brasil, 395 



The planting of one hundred thousand trees would cost respect- 

 ively : 



$2,852.50, when done at a distance of three yards. 

 $5,077.50, at a distance of four yards. 

 $7,937.50, at a distance of five yards. 



After six years, the yield will be as follows : 

 Ten thousand trees, at a minimum rate of six pounds of sap each, will give 

 60,000 pounds, which, reduced to rubber, supposing that 56$ is lost by 

 evaporation, will leave 26,400 pounds of rubber, the cost of which, as 

 calculated by Senor Escobar, is at the rate of three cents a pound. The 

 rubber sold on the place of production at 45 cents a pound, after the 

 deduction already referred to, will give for the 26,400 pounds ........ $11,880 OO 



Deducting the expenses of cultivation, at the rate of three cents a pound, 



according to the information furnished by Senor Escobar ........... 792 oo 



Leaving as a profit for the first year ...................... $11,088 oo 



Considering that the yield of rubber has been calculated at the 

 minimum rate of production, and that it will necessarily increase every 

 succeeding year, to the extent of being three or four times greater than 

 in the first, it is impossible to ignore the great future of that important 

 source of public wealth. 



VII. 



INFORMATION RELATING TO RUBBER IN THE PROVINCE OF 

 PARA, IN BRAZIL. 



Considering, as I said before, that as the Province of Para, in Bra- 

 zil, is the locality producing the greatest quantity of rubber and of the 

 best quality known, due, in some manner, to the way in which it is ex- 

 tracted, that it might be the product of a cultivated tree, and wishing to 

 obtain all the data possible upon that important branch of commerce, 

 I addressed during my stay in Soconusco the following letter to Mr. 

 James B. Bond, United States Consul at Para : 1 



1 My letter and Mr. Bond's answer were written in English, and translated into 

 Spanish, in the Spanish edition of this paper made in 1872. Now they have been re- 

 translated into English from the Spanish translation, and therefore, although their 

 meaning has not been changed, the wording must necessarily be very different from the 

 original English text. 



When I published, in the City of Mexico, in December, 1872, my paper on India- 

 rubber culture, I sent a copy of the same to Mr. James B. Bond, United States Consul 

 at Para, Brazil, and made further inquiries from him on rubber in Brazil. My letter 

 was received by him in Para when he was no longer United States Consul there, but 

 was getting ready to return home, and when Mr. Charles M. Travis was fulfilling the 

 duties of that office. Mr. Bond answered my letter in Para on January 8, 1873, 

 giving me additional information which he had collected while there, and on his arrival 

 in New York he addressed me another letter with a similar purpose, dated February 

 26, 1873. I also received a letter from Mr. Travis dated at Para, January 21, 1873, on 

 the same subject, and considering these letters of interest I append them to this paper. 



