68 
in Mexico, asking for details regarding their progress, to be held in 
confidence except for use in making up statements of totals, responses 
have been received from most of the companies that have actually 
begun planting. From a few substantial companies the desired de- 
tails have not yet been received, and in a few other cases the state- 
ments have not been made in a form to permit of their use in the 
computations which follow. The returns which appear in the table 
of total planting below are supplied by twenty-six companies. Of 
the companies referred to, one was incorporated in 1897, two in 1899, 
three in 1900, nine in 1901, and two in 1902; regarding the other 
nine we are not informed. It will be seen that the companies are 
mainly new, and some have done very little of the planting contem- 
plated. Two however state that they have finished planting. 
The total number of trees planted by the twenty-six companies, by 
years, is reported as follows : — 
Planted 1897 - 5,200 Planted 1901 - 1,101,678 
„ 1898 - 21,700 „ 1902 - 2,99r,ooo 
1899. 
37 ^ 7^5 
Total. 
5 , 443 , * 05 
„ 1900 - 952,742 
The total acreage reported is 11,117. * he acreage cannot be pre- 
sented by years in some cases, but by partially estimating, from the 
returns supplied, it appears that about 5,300 acres were put into rub- 
ber in 1902. Thirteen of the reports, in which exact details appear, 
give the following average number of trees planted per acre in that 
year. 
•400 1,000 820 800 2,000 
500 200 800 587 600 
496 250 61 r 
These thirteen companies report a total planting of 2,671,000 trees 
in 1902, on 4,113 acres, or an average of 650 trees per acre. It will 
be understood of course that the practice is general of close planting, 
both to allow for failures, and with the idea of extracting some rub- 
ber from the surplus trees when they have grown so as to make their 
removal necessary. 
While some of the companies have tried various methods of plant- 
ing as regards shade, generally one plan has been adhered to in each 
case, and further planting as a rule, will be done under the same 
method as in the past. The distribution of the total planting to date 
has been as follows : — 
Planted in the open - - 3,202,920 trees. 
Planted in the open and semi shade 1,1 17,000 „ 
Planted in semi shade - - 1,019,185 „ 
Planted in shade - - - 4,000 ,, 
Not stated - - - 1 00,000 „ 
Total.. 5,443,105 trees. 
Ten companies planted in the open, two in the open and semi 
shade, eleven in semi shade, one in shade altogether, and two fail to 
report. 
