559 



Hoping that this letter may call forth some expressions of 

 opinion on tliis subject, 



Yours faithfully, 



FRANCIS PEARS. 



VALLA MB ROSA ESTATE, 



KLANG, SELANGOR, F. M. S. 



September igth, 1902. 



The Editor, 



agricultural bulletin, singapore. 



DEAR Sir, — I am directed by my Association to forward you the 

 enclosed letter from Mr. J. V. BRENCHLRV regarding Rubber cul- 

 tivation in Mexico, and to ask you to publish it in the next issue of 

 your paper. 



Yours faithfully, 



HERBERT M. DARBY. 

 Hon. Secretary, U.P.A., F.MS, 



ficus elastica, 



British Club, 

 Apartado 423, 

 Mexico City, April i/th, 1902. 



DEAR Sir, — Mr. Jeromk, H. B. M. Consul here has asked me to 

 answer yours of 24th October last' and I lost the letter and your 

 address, but it has turned up again and I will tell you what I know 

 about the rubber culture here in which 1 am much interested myself. 



1 he wild Rubber of the hot country in Mexico is " Castilloa 

 Elastica " and that is being planted on nearly if not all the estates 

 to which the Consul refers ; there are other rubbers in the country 

 though they do not grow to any great extent. *' Ficus Elastica" is 

 also to be found and grows up here at the altitude of over 7,000 

 feet but naturally yeilds nothing nor is it tapped and there are three 

 other varieties growing in the great square of this city but nobody 

 taps them, neither is it allowed, however, I slashed one to see what 

 it would give and I got a very nice specimen of rubber out of it. On 

 one of my own places in the State of Chiapas on the Pacific coast 

 1 planted last year a quantity of " Manihot Glasiovii " which grows 

 on stony ground and originally comes from Brazil and requires very 

 little water but I planted it because it grows up to 3,000 feet and 

 with our enormous rainfall on that coast (170 inches in the year) it 

 ought to do very well. I have no idea of the number of the rubber 

 plantations now being planted nor their acreage as there are so 

 many lies told about them, but if you will look at the map of Sou- 

 thern Mexico you may take it that the lower halfs of the States of 

 Oaxaca, Veracruz, nearly all Chiapas and all Tabasco are suited for 

 rubber and as there are a great many people planting, you may get 



