ESSENTIALS OF SUCCESSFUL PLANTATIONS. 81 



1. Natural conditions of climate and soil must be favorable. — This 

 can best be inferred from the careful study of the wild rubber trees 

 and other native vegetation. It is not safe to proceed under general 

 ideas that Castilla will be productive everywhere in the Tropics, or 

 that there are large regions or belts uniformly suitable for rubber. 

 It is not safe to rely upon even the fact that neighboring plantations 

 are productive, unless similarity of soil and topography has been 

 ascertained. 



2. The plantation should be reasonably accessible.— Although the 

 bringing out of the rubber may not be difficult, the transportation of 

 more bulky products and of the building materials and supplies, as 

 well as the traveling expenses of the managers and laborers, will mean 

 continuous charges with large totals. Some of the rubber estates of 

 Mexico have already encountered unexpected difficulties and expenses 

 in opening roads and buying steamboats. 



3. There must be an adequate and regular supply of labor. — The cost 

 of labor is also obviously important. Labor conditions may be very 

 different in regions not far apart. The prospect in Mexico and Cen- 

 tral America is an increasing scarcity of labor, higher wages, and 

 larger expenses for quarters, supplies, and oversight necessary to 

 keep laborers on the plantation. The conditions are entirely different 

 from those of the United States, where the employer's responsibility 

 so commonly ends with working hours and pa} r da}^. The cost of 

 labor in Porto Rico does not compare unfavorably with that of many 

 tropical districts of the continent, and the remaining inequality is 

 rapidly disappearing. 



4. Local government must be stable and efficient. — Unless located in 

 regions controlled by stable and efficient governments the protection 

 of rubber plantations against thieves may become a very large expense, 

 to say nothing of the misfortune of general insecurity of life and 

 property. 



5. The climate must be reasonably salubrious; otherwise the difficulty 

 and expense of labor and management may be greatly increased. 

 Recent discoveries in tropical medicine, particularly the fact that 

 malaria and }^ellow fever are communicated b} r mosquitoes, make it 

 easier than ever before to secure protection against these diseases. 

 The fact that rubber does not require continuous humidity also permits 

 the extension of rubber culture in more salubrious localities. 



6. Plantation managers must be capable, efficient, and honest. — Invest- 

 ors in rubber culture and other tropical enterprises are far more 

 dependent upon the managers of their plantations than they are likely 

 to appreciate without practical experience. That there is a great 

 scarcity of competent and reliable managers of tropical plantations is 

 well shown by the princely salaries now being paid by several of the 



4876— No. 49—03 6 



