559 
Hoping that this letter may call forth some expressions of 
opinion on this subject. 
Yours faithfully, 
FRANCIS PEARS, 
The Editor, 
VALLAMBROSA ESTATE, 
KLANG, SELANGOR, F. M. S. 
September rcjth, 1902. 
AGRICULTURAL BULLET I Sf, SINGAPORE. 
Dear Sir,— I am directed by my Association to forward you the 
enclosed letter from Mr. J. V. Brenchley regarding Rubber cul- 
tivation in Mexico, and to ask you to publish it in the next issue of 
your paper. 
Yours faithfully, 
HERBERT M. DARBY. 
Hon. Secretary, U.P.A . , F.M.S, 
FICUS ELAST1CA, 
.British Club, 
Apartado 423, 
Mexico City , April ijth, 1902. 
Dear Sir, — Mr. Jerome, H. B. M. Consul here has asked me to 
answer yours of 24th October last and I lost the letter and your 
address, but it has turned up again and I will tell you what I know 
about the rubber culture here in which I am much interested myself. 
1 he wild Rubber of the hot country in Mexico is “ Castilloa 
Elastica ” and that is being planted on nearly if not all the estates 
to which the Consul refers ; there are other rubbers in the country 
though they do not grow to any great extent. ,f Ficus Elastica'’ is 
also to be found and grows up here at the altitude of over 7,000 
feet but naturally yeilds nothing nor is it tapped and there are three 
other varieties growing in the great square of this city but nobody 
taps them, neither is it allowed, however, I slashed one to see what 
it would give and I got a very nice specimen of rubber out of it. On 
one of my own places in the State of Chiapas on the Pacific coast 
1 planted last year a quantity of " Manihot Glasiovii ” which grows 
on stony ground and originally comes from Brazil and requires very 
little water but I planted it because it grows up to 3,000 feet and 
with our enormous rainfall on that coast ( 1 70 inches in the year) it 
ought to do very well. I have no idea of the number of the rubber 
plantations now being planted nor their acreage as there are so 
many lies told about them, but if you will look at the map of Sou- 
thern Mexico you may take it that the lower halfs of the States of 
Oaxaca, Veracruz, nearly all Chiapas and all Tabasco are suited for 
rubber and as there are a great many people planting, you may get 
