92 
be done. The weeds could not be annihilated because it is- 
so wet tJiat they, after bein^ hoed, would again grow up. No 
plant can grow without air any more than an animal can, and 
if you shut out the oxygen it would die in a short time and it 
will show the effects of the lack of oxygen very quickly. 
One of the most striking things to me on looking over all 
the plantings and comparing them with about a year before,, 
was the great changes that had taken place in the physical 
appearance of the soil where this weed eradication had been 
carried on. In some places the soil was mud and the horse 
went along in the mire. After the weeds were removed, the 
superficial water ran off and many of those places were actu- 
ally more or less dry. There was a very noticeable difference 
and the air was going into the soil and the trees were grow- 
ing. 
Xow, from the results that have been had so far in grow- 
ing rubber in Xahikii, it seems to me that we may be sure 
that a tree large enough for tapping can be got inside of five 
years. I do not think that unreasonable. Inside of three 
years we could get them, with the best cultivation, but five 
years is plenty of time to allow to get a plantation of good 
size for convenient tapping. It is not possible by any means 
to get ceara without cultivation. You can go about the plan- 
tations and see trees three years old with cultivation that are 
larger than trees five years old without cultivation, in similar 
conditions. That saving of two years is, of course, of im- 
mense advantage. It might make all the difference between 
succeeding and not succeeding, keeping the stockholders en- 
couraged and having them discouraged, and having the cjues- 
tion of financial backing trembling in the balance all the 
time. 
Of course, I have heard some expressions of slight disap- 
pointment from time to time at the results of tapping experi- 
ments Avhich have been carried on here. I think we have been 
unduly enthusiastic about the yields which we are going to 
get, and particularly in Hawaii we are always looking for too 
large profits. But the results indicate, as Mr. Anderson said 
this morning, very clearly that a reasonable profit can be ob- 
tained from the rubber trees as they stand, and this is the 
time to settle the matter, so far as we can tell now, as to 
whether the rubber is an industry here or not. If you can 
take trees that were planted five years ago with no special 
knowledge as to what ought to be done to rubber here, start- 
ing in on an industry of which there was absolutely nothing- 
known K) us and, after making some mistakes, still get trees 
which will yield a profit in five years, it seems that would set- 
tle the point as to whether there is a reasonable profit in 
caring for rubber trees, for every man who has charge of 
