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Saps and Exudations. 



greatly overpaid to the benefit of one or another interested party. Very often the 

 management has lacked all experience of tropical agriculture. Even at present it 

 would, in many cases, be well if the companies realized that there is a little differ- 

 ence between growing cabbages or potatoes and rubber trees. Most of the plantation 

 managers are good, all-round business men, and would no doubt succeed in almost 

 any venture in their home country. But in the tropics, where climatic and soil 

 conditions are entirely different from those in the United States, where labour has 

 to be handled in a way peculiar to the country, where another language than English 

 is necessary in order to communicate with the people, a man with however wide 

 agricultural or business experience, fresh from home, is sure to be expensive to his 

 employers. The first requirement in establishing a tropical plantation is the right 

 kind of soil and climate for the plant to be cultivated. Next comes an honest and 

 competent manager. If the home end of the proposition is in good hands, there is 

 not the slightest doubt but that rubber planting is a very profitable business- 



RUBBER CULTURE DEMONSTRATED A SUCCESS. 

 It is by no means a mere assumption that the cultivation of rubber may prove 

 a success. It has been fully demonstrated that the Castilloa tree can be grown profit- 

 ably on a commercial scale, that it produces under cultivation a sufficient quan- 

 tity of rubber to more than amply repay expenses, and that plantation 

 rubber can be produced cheaper and better than the product from wild trees. 

 Although none of the Mexican plantations are, as yet, in full bearing, we could 

 enumerate several plantations where tapping is now regularly carried on, and where 

 the returns show that rubber planting is no more an experiment than the growing of 

 oranges. In each case we have to presuppose the existence of right conditions. 



THE YIELD EXAGGERATED. 



Lack of experience has in most cases led to over-sanguine expectations in 

 regard to the yield of rubber from a plantation. Usually a few picked trees are 

 tapped for the benefit of the inspecting shareholder and from the results a total 

 yield is estimated by means of a simple arithmetical calculation. Such a proceeding 

 is, however, of no value in obtaining an average yield of an agricultural crop. If 

 one acre of corn yields 50 bushels, it need not necessarily follow that 10,000 acres 

 would produce 500,000 bushels. If one rubber tree of a certain age gives one pound 

 of crude rubber it is not proved that a million trees would produce so many pounds. 

 Any one conversant with agriculture knows that estimates made on such a basis are 

 without value. 



There are companies who state in their literature that three to five pounds 

 of rubber is obtained from trees ten years old. Whether such statements are due to 

 ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation they do not in any way promote the 

 interest of the rubber industry. The public cannot but remain doubtful before such 

 exaggeration of facts. To imagine that any kind of legitimate enterprise in agri- 

 culture would give from 500 to 700 per cent, annually on millions of dollars invested 

 is simply ridiculous. 



The experience of the results of tapping is yet limited, but from actual tests 

 we know the following averages are certain :— A plantation of seven year old trees 

 will give two ounces to the tree, eight year old trees four ounces, nine year old 

 trees six ounces, ten year old trees seven ounces, eleven year old trees 

 eight ounces, and twelve year old trees ten ounces. It is possible that a larger 

 return will be obtained, but so far we have no reliable evidence to show that such 

 would be the case. 



The average yield of ten ounces per tree from a twelve year old plantation 

 means at least 30 per cent interest on the investment, and this ought to be sufficient 

 for any shareholder. 



