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RUBBER PLANTING ON THE 
hogs that consider any kind of snake, poisonous or otherwise, a great 
delicacy, and that those that escape the hogs are very likely to he caught 
by the hawks, which are very abundant and always on the watch. There 
are only two really poisonous snakes there, as far as known ; one is the 
rabadc hcuso, which is small, quick, and very deadly, and seems to have 
a special antipathy to mules ; the second is called by the natives the 
“sorda,” and is something like the diamond rattlesnake, but has no 
rattles. It has poison fangs an inch and a half long, is very slow to 
move, and quite poisonous. There are also small pythons and some 
big black racers, both harmless, however. 
We returned to La Buena Ventura late in the afternoon, and 
after a good night's sleep, were fully prepared for further visiting. Our 
next journey was to La Junta, the largest plantation in that district. 
Like all the others, the approach was through the forest, by the usual 
trail that meant considerable rough riding, the fording of streams, plod- 
ding through mud, and climbing over fallen tree trunks. By this time 
I was fairly used to it, however, and was enjoying it as I never would 
have believed possible. It was early in the afternoon when we emerged 
from the forest and struck the broad, fine road that runs through the 
plantation. We were now on a ridge that gave a fine view, not only 
of the rolling land covered with young rubber trees, but some two miles 
off we also saw the administration building an:l workmen's homes that 
mark the certer of the planting operations. The estate contains some 
five thousand acres, of which about one-half is already cleared, most 
of it planted to rubber. The trees are from seven to nine feet apart, 
and looked as if they were in prime condition. The orchard numbers 
about seven hundred and fifty thousand rubber trees. The oldest were 
two rears and average 23.5 inches in diameter, a foot from the ground, 
and about seven feet in height. For help, there are from two 
hundred to four hundred men, one-half of whom are natives. Perhaps 
here more than anywhere else has been tried the experiment of* importing 
labor, and not depending entirely upon the native, who is not at all 
times entirely reliable. 
The average moso, or agricultural laborer, is, however, a most 
interesting study. If treated well, he is a good workman, and that, too, 
without any particular reason why he should be. In the community in 
which he lives, be has allotted to him a certain amount of land, which 
if tilled three months in the year very moderately, will produce enough 
to keep its owner in what is to him comfort, the year round. As a rule, 
the moso is of medium height, strong and skilled within certain narrow 
