68 
in  Mexico,  asking  for  details  regarding  their  progress,  to  be  held  in 
confidence  except  for  use  in  making  up  statements  of  totals,  responses  H 
have  been  received  from  most  of  the  companies  that  have  actually  11 
begun  planting.  From  a few  substantial  companies  the  desired  de- 
tails have  not  yet  been  received,  and  in  a few  other  cases  the  state- 
ments have  not  been  made  in  a form  to  permit  of  their  use  in  the 
computations  which  follow.  The  returns  which  appear  in  the  table  I 
of  total  planting  below  are  supplied  by  twenty-six  companies.  Of  j 
the  companies  referred  to,  one  was  incorporated  in  1897,  two  in  1899,  1 
three  in  1900,  nine  in  1901,  and  two  in  1902;  regarding  the  other  j 
nine  we  are  not  informed.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  companies  are  I 
mainly  new,  and  some  have  done  veiy  little  of  the  planting  contem- 
plated, Two  however  state  that  they  have  finished  planting. 
The  total  number  of  trees  planted  by  the  twenty-six  companies,  by 
years,  is  reported  as  follows  : — 
Planted  1897  - 5,200  Planted  1901  - i,  [01,678  i 
„ 1898  - 21,700  ,,  1902  - 2,991,000 
„ 1899  - 370,7^5  - 'rotal...5,443,io5 
1900  - 952,742 
The  total  acreage  reported  is  11,117.  4'he  acreage  cannot  be  pre- 
sented by  years  in  some  cases,  but  by  partially  estimating,  from  the 
returns  supplied,  it  appears  that  about  5,300  acres  were  put  into  rub- 
ber in  1902.  Thirteen  of  the  reports,  in  which  exact  details  appear, 
give  the  following  average  number  of  trees  planted  per  acre  in  that 
year. 
400 
1,000 
820 
800 
2,000 
500 
200 
800 
5«7 
600 
496 
250 
61  I 
These  thirteen  companies  report  a total  planting  of  2,671,000  trees 
in  1902,  on  4,1 13  acres,  or  an  average  of  650  trees  per  acre.  It  will 
be  understood  of  course  that  the  practice  is  general  of  close  planting, 
both  to  allow  for  failures,  and  with  the  idea  of  extracting  some  rub- 
ber from  the  surplus  trees  when  they  hav'c  grown  so  as  to  make  their 
removal  necessary. 
While  some  of  the  companies  have  tried  various  methods  of  plant- 
ing as  regards  shade,  generally  one  plan  has  been  adhered  to  in  each 
case,  and  further  planting  as  a rule,  will  be  done  under  the  .same 
method  as  in  the  past.  The  distribution  of  th(i  total  ])lanting  to  date 
has  been  as  follows: — 
Planted  in  the  open  - - 3,202,920  trees. 
Planted  in  the  open  and  semi  shade  i,i  17,000  ,, 
Planted  in  semi  .shade  - - 1,019,185  ,, 
Planted  in  shade  . - - 4,000  ,, 
Not  stated  _ . - 100,000  ,, 
I'oted..  5,443,105  trees. 
'fell  companies  planted  in  the  opjn,  two  in  the  open  and  semi 
.shade,  eleven  in  .semi  .shade,  one  in  shade  altogether,  and  two  fail  to 
report. 
