172 
A VISIT TO RUBBER PLANTATIONS 
later, when we started out on our tour of inspection, the Importer, who 
would not ride horseback, was fitted out with a sort of buckboard, 
drawn by a mule and driven by a Southern darkey known as Jake. 
The rest of us rode horses. 
Almost the first thing that struck me about the planting problem 
down there was the remarkable prevalence of the morning glory vine. 
]ust as soon as the land is cleared and planted it takes possession, and 
if it were not cut down constantly around the young rubber trees, it 
would most effectually smother them. When the trees get a good start, 
the vine suddenly dies out and the grass comes in. My belief had always 
been that for grass to get into rubber was fatal to the growth and pro- 
RESIDENCE OF SIM IRON. 
ductiveness of the tree. I saw acres down there, however, with the 
grass growing among the three-year-old trees, and they were apparently 
as healthy and thrifty as they could possibly be. A little later the shade 
of the tree seems to discourage the growth of the grass, and in one 
planting, where the trees were between four and five years old, the 
grass had practically disappeared. 
The refusal of the Castilloa to put up with too much water was 
emphasized by the fact that a section of land, containing perhaps ten 
acres, on the Manhattan plantation, where during the heavy rains the 
water had not drained away quickly enough, most of the trees had died. 
