192 
A GLIMPSE OF RUBBER PLANTING 
Germans, and substantial banks, the country being on a gold basis, with 
the colon as a unit of value, worth forty-six cents in American money. 
The population of the country is three hundred and forty thousand, 
none of whom are Indians. Spanish is the language in general use, but 
almost everybody understands English, and it is a delight to mingle with 
the people, for they have none of the sullen air so prevalent in certain 
parts of Spanish America. 
During our stay in the country, we put up at the Hotel Imperial, 
where we had comfortable rooms and enjoyed an excellent table. As a 
matter of course, we asked many questions about rubber culture, but 
from the natives or the resident Americans we developed little informa- 
CENTRAL. PARK, SAN JOSE. 
tion. One of the latter explained it by saying that in that country at 
the present time bananas were the whole game, because they gave 
quicker results and had behind them the support of the United Fruit 
Co., who were perfectly willing that the planters should make a good 
thing out of their fruit. One native explained the lack of intestest in 
rubber planting by telling us solemnly that rubber seeds planted by man 
would not develop into productive trees. He said that nature's way of 
distributing the seeds was for the birds to eat them in order to get the 
sweet pulp with which they are surrounded, and mingled with their 
droppings, the seed grew into a tree that was a rubber producer. If 
it did not go through this preparatory process, it amounted to nothing. 
