402 fln&ia*1Rubber Culture in /iDejtco, 



x. 



CONCLUSION. 



In my opinion, what precedes is sufficient to demonstrate incon- 

 testably the great future of rubber culture in Mexico, and the large 

 profits it would yield after a few years to those who would devote 

 themselves to that industry. It may be affirmed, without any exagger- 

 ation, that neither cocoa, tea, coffee, sugar-cane, henequen, indigo, 

 nor any other tropical product, would give the same profits as rubber, 

 and the returns from each of these enterprises are, in reality, equal 

 to those obtained from a rich mine. 



When that culture is propagated in Mexico, it will open up a source 

 of inexhaustible wealth that will change the fate of the rubber-growing 

 districts, which, from being poor and miserable as they now are, will 

 become rich and opulent when that plant begins to produce. Anyone 

 in a situation enabling him to make a rubber plantation of greater or 

 less extent may undertake it at once with the full conviction that it is 

 the safest and most lucrative industry. While the coffee, cocoa, sugar- 

 cane, or any other plantation, in favorable years and under good con- 

 ditions, can give a return of one hundred per cent, on the capital 

 invested in the year, not upon the capital expended in preparing the 

 plantation, including the value of the land, one of rubber will give 

 over one thousand per cent., not alone upon the cost of the extraction, 

 but upon the first capital invested, including the value of the land. 



I shall consider my efforts amply rewarded, if the data contained 

 in this paper shall in any way realize the object I had in view in 

 writing it, and which is to create among our agriculturists the desire to 

 plant fields of rubber-trees in suitable localities. By so doing they 

 will be assured of a bright future, and contribute on a large scale to 

 increase the wealth of the country, to promote the welfare and pros- 

 perity of places where to-day poverty reigns, and where it can scarcely 

 be said that civilization has penetrated. 



I shall be very glad if persons of knowledge and experience in this 

 important branch of public wealth fix their attention upon this subject, 

 and, by their writings, contribute to the great object that I have 

 simply indicated, correct the errors contained in this paper, and supply 

 whatever is lacking to complete it. 



MEXICO, December 12, 1872. 



