Report, "Insect Census of Fordlandia Including Control Measures," March 29, 1935

From 1928 to 1945 Henry Ford tried, unsuccessfully, to establish productive rubber plantations at his Brazilian settlements of Fordlandia and Belterra. Set in the Amazon jungle, the plantations of trees were under constant threat from a multitude of tropical pests and diseases. Charles Townsend, an entomologist well-versed in the insects of Brazil, was brought in by Ford to address the pest problem.