The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1901-1901, 1901-05-21
GROWING RUBBER
AND OTHER THINGS
On Big Ranch in Southern Mexico.
CIark's Hacienda.

A. Clark and his brother, J. K. Clark,
own $4,000 acres of land upon which
they are growing rubber trees and
cultivating coffee and vanilla plants.
So far between 400 and 500 acres
have been planted. A number of the
coffee trees are now three years old
and are bearing their first crop. The
rubber trees are two years old, but
cannot be tapped until they are to
10 years old. Then they will begin to
yield from one to three pounds year
and will increase yearly thereafter for
many years.
The business of rubber and coffee
growing is still new to Mr.. Clark, but
he is convinced that it is as great and
profitable a business as copper min
ing. Mexican rubber sells in New
York at 60 cents pound, which is
about 65 cents less than the price for
the choice product of South America
J. K. Clark is now in Butte and to
a press reporter he gave the following
interesting information:
"Just before arrived at the planta-
ton Mexican tapped an old tree on
the place and took from it 100 pounds
of rubber, which will give you some
idea of the value of rubber tree
OF course he killed the tree by TAX
ing too much from it. When first
taken from the tree the stuff looks
| like milk, and it is afterwards put
through a precipitating process and
yields about 20 per cent rubber. We
will plant more ground in rubber this
year and will plant it direct from the
seed instead of transplanting from a
nursery. The land is covered with
jungle and timber. and for rubber
planting the ground must be entirely
cleared off and burned over. For cof-
| fee some of the trees are allowed to
! stand for shade, and for vanilla only
| the underbrush is cut out and the
trees are preserved for the vines to
cling to. There is a great variety of
trees, fully 20 different kinds, from
very soft wood to very hard, and in
Guiding many tropical fruit trees,
some of which are from five to six
feet in diameter. have known some
of those trees to bear tons of fruit each
and they furnish food for the natives.
Coffee culture is an interesting
business. The trees have three
blooms, coming about two weeks
apart, beginning about the first OF
April The berries will be ready for
picking in November, December and
January. They bear light crop the
third year, about one-fourth of
pound to the tree, and from that up
to the Goth year the crop increases
yearly. Mexican coffee, or Cordova,
as it is called on the market, sells
for IL cents in gold per pound at pres
ent. Different grades of coffee grow
on the same tree. The coffee is sort
ed by the buyers. What is called
| Mocha, Java and other familiar
| brands grow on the same tree, being
simply berries of different growth of
perfection.
"A coffee tree will grow 20 feet high
if it is allowed to grow, but they are
kept cut down to about six feet and
made to spread out, so that they will
| become better bearers and can more
easily be picked.
| Growing vanilla beans IS another
interesting and profitable business. A
| curious feature about it is that all the
blooms must be fortified by hand,
as bees and insects ranr:,t be depend
ed on to do it in hat c,untry. Il is
a well-known facs that .,;er, bloo;.:
fortified by hand will produce a bean,
and every bean IS worth TO- 20 or 80
cents in Mexican money and there are
lO to 20 beans to vine. Curing the
beans and preparing them for market
is also scientific business.
"The only trouble we have encoun.
tered down there is in regard to the
peon labor. Poems are contracted out
from one state to another for term
OF years at Is cents day in Mexican
money, but poems will not work and
will run away at every chance. When
l was down there before, about 50 of
them ran away. The government tried
to protect the contractors, and it
caught IL of the men who ran away.
The leader was sent into the army 1cr
five years as punishment. The most
reliable labor there is Chinese. You
can bring Chinese laborers direct
from Hongkong under contract for
three years at 81 day in Mexican
money, which means about so cents
in the United States.
/ ols