and Magazine nf Ike Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



YIELD AND GROWTH OF RUBBER ON 

 MEXICAN PLANTATIONS. 



Our readers will not require telling that the 

 native rubber tree of Mexico is the Castilloa, 

 and that it requires in many ways different 

 treatment to the Para rubber tree. Methods 

 of cultivation are different and methods of 

 collecting the latex also differ to an important 

 degree. For example, the recommended method 

 of planting Castilloa is to sow the seeds at 

 stake in small mounds, seven seeds or so to 

 the mound. The mounds are spaced at a dis- 

 tance of seven feet in rows twelve feet apart. 

 This allows for a very large percentage of 

 failures, and thinning is carried on year by 

 year until at the end of the sixth year from 

 planting there are approximately (>0(» trees 

 to the acre. The best 400 trees are allowed to 

 remain permanently and are not tapped before 

 they have rooted 26 in. or 28 in. in circum- 

 ference. The remaining trees are tapped to death. 

 Differences from the Eastern practice in con- 

 nection with rubber collection arise from the fact 

 that while Hevea gives a small amount of latex 

 at each tapping, say two or three times a week, 

 Castilloa does not respond to such methods, 

 but gives a considerably larger amount at each 

 tapping when tapped from one to three times a 

 year. This is not to say, however, that the total 

 yield from Castilloa is as good as that from Para. 



So far there are little data to go on regarding 

 the average yield of Castilloa rubber, but it 

 may be pointed out that in a supposititious 

 instance where two trees, one of Para (on an 

 Eastern plantation) and the other of Castilloa 

 (in Mexico), are producing the same amount 

 of rubber annually, the cheaper coolie labour 

 of the Eastern estate would be offset by the 

 necessity of employing more tappers. Labour 

 being one of the largest items in estate ex- 

 penditure, this is a levelling factor of the first 

 importance ; according to the Mexican view. 



In many cases extremely low figures are 

 given as the cost of producing rubber in Mexico; 

 for example, in two reports before us the 

 figure of 15 cents (7id.) per lb. is quoted, but 

 others give 25 cents (Is. Id.) and 23 cents (Hid.) 

 On the well-known La Zacualpa Plantation, 

 No. 1, 40,600 lb. of "refined" rubber was col- 

 lected by means of 257,760 different tappings 

 at a cost working out at 7} cents per lb. 

 Adding approximately 8 cents per lb. for 

 maintenance and general expense of market- 

 ing, etc., this makes a total of 15 cents per lb 

 as the cost harvesting and marketing. The 

 average was about 2 '25 ounces per tree for each 

 tapping, but it is not stated how often each 

 tree was tapped. A few of the trees were seven 

 years old; some were six; but the majority would 

 be only five years old. Some trees of the age 

 of seven years were tapped twice during the 

 year, yielding about 3 oz. at the first tapping and 

 8 to 11 oz. at a second and more drastic tapping 

 four months later. 



The following table is given by another plant- 

 ation as the normal yield expectation at various 

 ages : — 



( i nnees. 



Yield, first year, age eight years .. 4 



,, second year, age nine years . . 5 



,, third year, age ten years ... 6 



,, fourth year, age eleven years ... 8 



,, fifth year, age twelve years . . 10 



,, sixth year, age thirteen years .. 12 



,, seventh year, age fourteen years .. 14 



eighth year, age fifteen years .. 16 



On the Pittsburg Obispo Plantation, the pro- 

 perty of the Pennsylvania Obispo Plantation Co., 

 the following measurements of the circumfer- 

 ence of Castilloa trees were taken by a stock- 

 holder, who recently visited the property : — 



One and one-half year old trees— 10, 8J, 12, 14, 121, 14i, 10}, 

 5:J, 91, 7. Average, 10.42 inches. 



Two and one-half year old trees. First group— 21, 21, 20, 

 211, 21, 17,21, 19, 20, 18, 221, 18, 19J, 17.}. I6J, 15J. Average, 

 19.31 inches. .Second group— 15, 131, 1=1,18,194, 17,18,181, 

 17}, 16, 17, 18, 151, 16|, 181, 15, 13?, 12?, 17, 16, 21}. Average, 

 16.2 inches. Third group -191, 17, 17, 141, It, 191, 13, 

 161, 14, 121 91, 171, 13}, Hi, 13$, 13, 141, 12. 1?1, 14, 12'. 

 131, 111, Id. Average, 14*03 inches. Fourth group 18, 17*. 

 1 |, 16, 131, 12, 16, 14, 18|, 161, 15, 15, 15, 151, 11'., ll|, 

 15, 14§, 12, 14, 21$, 18. Average 15 inches. 



Three and one-half year old trees — 21, 22, 23, 24. Aver- 

 age, 22'5 inches. 



Four and one-half year old trees-27, 29, 23, 27, 22$, 

 26, 27, 201, 26, 25$. 26, 251. Average, °.bV2 inches. 



Of course this rate of growth is not permanent 

 and at the age of. 5 or 6 years it becomes some- 

 what slower. 



This gentleman naively concludes, by the 

 way: "When visiting the rubber plantations 

 my thoughts went back to our stockholders, and 

 I wished every one of them could see what 1 

 saw, so that they might appreciate the wonder- 

 ful possibilities of rubber culture, and also the 

 fine beginning that has been made with the 

 work. I am sure they would say unanimously, 

 ' It is better than I expected or even than I wan 

 told.'".... 



Past and Present of the Mexican 

 Planting Industry. 

 Since writing the above there has come to 

 hand a report of a speech made by Dr Olssen- 

 Seffer on the occasion of the opening of the 

 second convention of the Rubber Planters' As- 

 sociation of Mexico, held at San Geronimo on 

 the 31st July and following days.. ..If he does 

 not wish to commit himself on the subject of 

 the probable yield of Castilloa rubber, Dr 

 Olssen-Seffer can at all everts speak plainly 

 when he likes : 



'* It is well known what a deplorable state 

 Mexican planting has been in in years gone 

 by. The main reason for this was that the 

 promoter of plantation undertakings did not re- 

 alise that a tropical plantation representing per- 

 haps an investment of one million dollars, calls 

 for a managerial ability of the highest order. 

 Any man who was something of a business 

 man in his own country was considered lit 

 to take charge of a large enterprise, which 

 required a man of many accomplishments. 

 Such a management naturally was not success- 

 ful, and we have seen one large concern after 

 another fall down, causing entire loss of the 

 investment to those actually interested, and 

 giving a bad rapufcation to the entire rubber 

 planting industry of Mexico. 



" We have now reached a turning point. 

 The public is not willing to invest if they 

 have not every assurance of competent and 

 honest management of the property they are 

 financing. The promoter has found that it is 



