The St. Louis Republic., 1902-12-21
Rubber Industry Is the Newest
Agricultural Scheme Foisted
on the Credulous.
QUERIES SENT TO CONSUL.
Cultivation of Plant Is in an EX-
perimental State and Specu-
latOrs Are Advised to
Proceed Cautiously.

City of Mexico. Dec. ga great many
good American dollars have been lost.
strayed or stolen in agricultural schemes in
| Mexico.
1t is highly probable that many more will
| meet the same fate. There is a pile of
| several hundred letters at the American
| consulate from men wanting to know all
| about rubber cultivation
| In the course of time each one of these
inquirers will receive a polite note telling
him that this particular industry is In an
| experimental state and advising hm to pro-
ceed cautiously in making investments.
In order to determine just what profits
| have been made in producing cultivated rub
ber, a call was made at the office of the
| largest land company in Mexico and asked
the manager for the best statement Of ac-
| tua! results he could make. This IL an
/ honest concern and the following reply IS
based on facts:
| I'VE sent a representative to make a tour
| of the cultivated rubber groves in Mexico
that had been tapped and their productS
| marketed. At a plantation near the town
| OF Oaxaca near the line of the State OF
| Vera Cruz, the planter stated that ne hau
| tapped $50 of his trees and obtained from
| them 500 pounds OF clean rubber reaoy ioF
! market. ..
| A few of these trees were planted eighteen
twenty SSeands asS but the most Of
We're from seven to nine years old. and the
| average yield of the latter was two POUNDS
| Five months after being tapped these
| trees were in fine condition, the WOUNDS IN
the bark being filed with new xt Woeu sas1
SON TO prepare the rubber the sap was was
caught in buckets and poured out on the
tHs ut was aO allowed to stand to depth of
! two inches and left for several days 10 upS
in the sun. 1t was then cut fdr,I, into io,,s ons
ted the planter 81 per pound in silver"
| HE RECEIVED 1912.
amounted to but ssl2 in American currency.
He had waited on all or the his st
| and on some of them for from eighteen
1 to twenty years. s .,,,..d
seven Years he got two pounds of rubber
which brought him so cents.
The following clipping from a iocai pa =
| per is a short sermon on caution: h;oh As =
| sad commentary on the manner IN Which
foreign capitalists too careless OF thelI ~
terests. are sometimes eitien, ,,is one conntrv
| now being offered for sale for ssooo, W. VIII. 81,
| a number of years ago was turned over owe, pS oS
| a stock company for the mooest suht VI
| So oOC.Oe0 in Mexican money ,-
From the foregoing Is must no' pe ~. III
sidered that Mexico is all bad; II Is a.. nres.
! ceedingy large country stretchins, ac,uI a,aS,
! eighteen parallels of latitude AhhouS"
| If affords a great diversity of soil and c!l-
mate It is more more than IN nalr arcnisnra, Ig way.
! The highlands of Mexico are s,IniiSI SIN S.1 ~
! the uplands of Spain and when the span, span.
! of those tracts which were familiar to
them. Some single holdings are seventy
! five niles square. ,.s,s
T by the railroad. and it takes couple OF
/! hours for train to run across It. ihele
. are $500 people employed upon H.
Tt,a hey nf
/ fully 15u.0S animals There are also 40,UO
mead of cattle. horses ard mules. ,,,o
The owner is several times "a millionaire
! The agriculture of the country has been re-
! stricted mainly to land barons. nj
AS class there are no small farmers ,s,Ili llHe
! uaI crops are small, but whose aggregate
production contributes to the wealth Of the
, country every year to the amount OF mil
! WOMEN BEASTS OF BURDEN.
! Coming into Mexico the train worries
alorg for hundeds of miles across par
rem waste that has little life except gnarled
and misshapen growths of cactus that seem
10 have distorted their shapes in mighty
effort to rise above the meagerness oL thelr ,,.I
and the plain giimmers with its rejected
! heat.
Swirliny clouds of dust wriggle across the
I sand heaps and settle upon everything am,
mate or inanimate. living or dead. And
what can you expect OF people WHO HNe
| in place like this?
Surely the law of environment is respon-
| sbIe for these brown. towsled little people
! who live in huts that are hardly better than
! holes in the ground whose dogs and PIGS
have equal privilege of the premises: and
| who are so little advanced from primevai
living that they still crush their corn be
! tween two rocks after the fashion of the
ancients.
The woman is a beast of burden: the
child a wild little thing that gets barely
| enough water to drink and none TO wash
in; the man stands wrapped to the eyes
as If the very silence of the desert had
struck into his soul.
+ His body IS dwarfed and drawn and his
mind runs N very narrow groove.
He is but the stunted growth of his poor
surroundings. Some day the land around
hun may be irrigated and when green fields
stretch away before his eyes and flowers
bloom in his path, and birds come to mate
in the trees that will grow. ii will freshen
him. and his children may have better
place among the sons of man.