The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-03-27
THE RUBBER TREE IN MEXICO.
An Interesting Description Of the Meth
DDS and Profits of It's Cultivation

order of the Artocarpaceae or Urtica
ceae. The old Aztecs called it holqua
huitl or Chilli, and the Tarascans tar
antaquam.
| Fray Francisco Jimenez says tina
the former played a game with BALL
made of the gum of the tree. The gun
was known by them under the nam
of holli, and the old Mexicans gave thu
bark, sap, leaves and gums numerous
medicinal applications. In A. d. l61
FIR. Juan Torquemada mentions also
similar use made of the gum, and notes
the name of the tree which yields 1t a!
the Ulequalmiti or Ule tree But
was not till 1894 that D. Vicente Ger
vantes, who was sent by the Spanish
government to Mexico to examine Its
vegetable productions, published his IN
vestigations there by demonstrating tt
the civilized nations the future useful
ness of this valuable plant In the indus
trial world. Since then the tree has
been tapped and it's principal product
been exported, nevertheless until with
in the last twenty years some efforts
have been made toward cultivating it
This tree is found growing wild south
slopes at attitudes from sea level to SOC
metres on the Pacific, but on the MeXi-
can Gulf it is seldom found above 60l
metres Owing to the reckless method
employed by natives who destroy the
rubber trees in order to obtain a greater
yield of milk at one time, the virgin
rubber forests are almost extinguished
excepting in Southern Yucatan, East
ern Campeche, and Northeastern CHA
pas, and within a short time the world S
supply of crude rubber must be derived
from cultivated plantatons-that is, in
reference to this country.
Few are the plantations of rubber eX-
listing in the republic. The principal
one is La Esmerado, in Juquila, Oaxa-
ca, which has over one hundred thou
sand trees, ten to fourteen years Old;
the next is a plantation in the hacienda
Dona Felipa Ortiz in Plchucalco,
Chiapas, consisting Of ten thousand
trees twelve years old.
The Dos Rios company, whose lands
are located on the Chalchijapa river,
fifty-two miles from the port OF Coatza-
coalcos, in the state of Vera Cruz, have
planted during the last three years
about one hundred thousand trees for
themselves and their settlers. Other
small plantations have been establish
ed, among them that Of Mr.. Hartman
in Jaltipan, Vera Cruz; Ianjon seco,
in the County of Soconuso, Chiapas
and Hatillo, state of Vera Cruz There
has been so much interest taken in the
growth of the plant that an English
syndicate, the Mexican Finance Syndl-
cate, planted last summer in the DIS
trict of Pochutla, OaXaca, Two num-
bred and eighty-five thousand trees;
the owners of Union Iberica Culcatlan
District, same state, have ten thousand
trees among their coffee plants, and the
Ell Porvenir company, district of Ion-
golica, Vera Cruz, have planted nearly
fifty thousand trees.
The tree propagates itself from the
seed which drops from it in the month
of May and June to the ground and is
there watered and nurtured by the
warm rains, which soon follow. The
young plant, some time after, comes up
to take it's place among varied tropi-
cal life. The seed of the ficus ripens
from January to March when it should
be collected as it falls and dried in the
sun. Properly speaking. this is the
fruit and consists of small figs the size
of a pea, which at the time Of sowing
(between April and June) are broken
between the hands. The seed thus mix
ed with the particle of fruit is sown
without any attempt to clean or sepa-
rate it. Generally there are seventy
five very small seeds in the one fig.
Both species canralso readily be pro-
pagated from mature cuttings or shoots
by first being planted on coarse sandy
loan and then transplanted The plant
ing must be done when the sap OF the
parent plant Cor the root ITSELF is down
namely, after the rains. In the case
of the cuttings the branches must be
cut below the bud or close to the stem
or the parent plant and the cutting not
allowed to bleed. Moreover, young
plants found under old trees are suita-
BILE for propagation.
In both species a the end of the first
year the tree will be from s to 10 feet
high, from IL to Is at the end Of second
year; at three to four years, 16 to Is
feet with a trunk 6 to s inches in diam
eter; at five to six years, 25 to 80 feet
and 70 to IS inches in diameter, and at
eight to ten years So to 40 feet, and 20
to 80 inches in diameter. When the
tree reaches so to 60 feet high it attains
usually 3 to feet in diameter II is a.
we'll known fact that at Soconusco,
Chiapas, trees have been found meas
lring 6 feet in diameter. covering an
area having g. metres, 203 feet Of circle,
and showing 50 years of age.
Although the tree fructify at six
years of age yet they are not ready to
:ap until after ten years from trans
planting. The yield then is six pounds
If juice, 40 per cent of which is gum
On the Gulf the Castiloa is susceptible
If yielding at that age three pounds of
rum, but on the Pacific it has not yield
ID over one pound If the trees are
planted on lands having the soil, eli
nate and elevation well adapted for the
culture and are properly tapped, the
held will increase from 20 to 25 per cent
very year for fifteen to twenty years,
is then the tree, having assumed a di- |
lmeter of four to five feet, will yield |
wenty gallons of emulsion, or milk, |
quivalent to forty pounds of gum. The |
rec is susceptible of lasting fifty to |
twenty-five years.
Regarding the work of extracting the |
,um it is to be said that one man (the |
lulero) will tap twenty to twenty-five |
rees a day if the operation is perform
d carefully and methodically. In some
laces the tapping is done after the |
eavy rains in October but it is more
dvisable to perform same in the dry