<A MONTHLY. I>* 
XX 11. 
COLOMBO, DECEMBER 1st, 1902. 
No. 6 
JOURNEY TO A RUBBER PLANT- 
ATION ON THE ISTHMUS OF 
COLUMBIA. 
By C. O. Weber, Fh. D.* 
HE well-known difficulty of in- 
vestigating satisfactorily in 
Europe any of the numerous 
questions of importance con- 
nected with the collection of 
the latex from the rubber trees, 
its composition, and the most 
satisfactory manner of convert- 
ing it into india-rubber, made the commission I 
received in the (arly part of this year, to inspect 
and report upon the state and possibilities of the 
extensive rubber plantation of the Las Cascadas Plan- 
tations Company , Limited, at the very outset an accept"^ 
able one. The fact that this plantation is situated 
in the Isthmus of Panama sfemed to me a com- 
paratively slight matter, although I must own to occa- 
sional apprehensive pangs on being treated by some of 
my friends, and others, to somewhat vivid descriptions 
of the terrors of mosquitos, malaria, yellow fever, and 
small-pox. I will say at or.ce here that I found all these 
blood-cnrdlicg stories gross exaggerations. Colon is 
certainly an abominable hole, but had I to take 
the choice I would, without an instant's hesitation, 
prefer to live at Colon rather than in the slum 
districts of either London, Manchester, or Salford. 
The same, only more so, is to be said of Panama, 
which is a fairly well-built town upon rocky subsoil- 
Particularly the mosquito bogey appears to me an 
absurd exaggeration as far as the isthmus is con- 
cerned. Only onoe ('uring the whole journey did I 
get really badly bitten ; this was in my cabin on 
board the R.M.S- ' Para" on the first night after 
leaving Jamaica for Colon. It appeared that besides 
taking in coal at that port, we had also shipped a 
liberal consignment of mosquitos. 
The real trouble of an expedition like the one 
T undertook was never suggested to mo ; it consists 
in the fact that as soon as one leaves the beaten 
• From the India Rulher and Gutta-Percha Trades' 
Journal, Sept. 29. 1903. 
track {Colon to Panama) every trace of civilised 
comforts at once vanish. The food is artrooiously 
bad, the cooking worse; all drinks even water taken 
direct from the streams, are at almost fever heat, 
and often there is nothing to be had but rain water. 
It is this bad food, the monotony of the diet, and 
the insipidity of tepid drinks which I felt to render 
a stay in the Tropics rather trying. Of course, on 
a plantation with a well-established settlement all 
these difficulties largely disappear. 
As is well known the stretch of the isthmus from 
Colon to Panama, through wh'ch runs the track of 
the illustrated Panama Canal, is all low-lying, on 
the Colon side largely swampy land, the mean 
elevation of which above sea-level does certainly not 
exceed 80 feet. There are a number of banana 
plantations alongside, or within near distance of 
the canal track, but nothing of any magnitude. 
Shortly after leaving Colon, the mountain ranges 
appearing in the far distance, south and south-west 
of the town, begin slowly to close in upon the track 
of the canal, coming eventually, near Panama, right 
upon it, and it is this hill district which, intersected 
by innumerable small rivers and brooks, very gradi:« 
ally rises to altitudes 1,200 feet and upwards, which 
furnishes at altitudes of from 200 to 800 feet, or 
perhaps even somewhat higher, the most suitable 
land for the cultivation of India-rubber, cacao, and 
coffee. 
In this hill district, connected by their own road 
with Las Cascadas station, lies the plantation of 
the Las Cascadas Plantations Company, Limited, 
which comprise a total area of very many acres 
a large part of which is planted out with rubber 
(Castilloa elastiea), cacao, and coffee. The number 
of rubber treea on the plantation now amounts to 
70,000, of which 15,000 are from 11 to 12 years old. 
After arriving upon the plantation and fitting up 
the laboratory required for the examination of the 
latex, and the testing of rubber on the spot, my 
first concern was to ascertain the exact species of 
the Castilica on the plantation. This appear to 
me all the more important, as there is one species 
of Castilloa knowa which yields plenty of a latex, 
but one containing no rubber, anij there^ appear tg 
