8 
standing the difference in climate, and have produced shoots, 
which were by me transmitted to New Orleans. Humboldt 
says that this plant has become wild since the sixteenth cen- 
tury throughout all the South of Europe, the Canary Islands, 
and the Coast of Africa; and this fact supports my decided 
opinion that all the valuable species of the same genus may 
be successfully cultivated in our Southern States. 
“ Two varieties of that species, which I take the liberty 
to christen Agave Sisalana, have long been cultivated in the 
vicinity of Merida, on an extensive scale. Different quantities 
and qualities of fibres are obtained from several kinds of *sos- 
quil which grow spontaneously through the whole peninsula 
of Yucatan; but the planters give the preference to the Sacqui 
and Yazqui of the natives, or the whitish and greenish * Hene- 
quen? The young plants are placed about twelve Spanish 
feet apart, and during the first two years some labour is em- 
ployed to destroy the weeds between them. In the third 
year, the cutting of the lower rows of leaves is commenced, 
and every four months the operation is repeated. Each 
robust plant will thus give about seventy-five leaves annually, 
from which are extracted about seven pounds and a half of 
fibres, and will continue yielding these crops from five to ten 
years in succession ; it is, however, generally cut down as 
soon as one of the shoots from its roots has grown sufficiently 
to supply its place: its other offspring are previously re- 
moved to form new plantations. The hardiness of the shoots 
may be inferred from the fact that they are exposed to the 
sun fifteen or twenty days “to cicatrize their wounds,’ as a 
necessary preparation for replanting. The simplicity of their 
cultivation may be conceived from the statement that there 
is not a hoe, nor a spade, nor a harrow, nor a plough, em- 
ployed in the agriculture of all Yucatan. The facility of 
extracting the fibres from their leaves is shewn by the rude- 
ness of the instruments which are used by natives for that 
purpose : a triangular stick of hard wood, with sharp edges, 
from 24 to 27 inches long, and from one to two inches thick, 
is with them an equivalent to the shaving-knife of the 
curriers, by which they scrape away from each side of the 
leaf, on a board resting against the breast, the cuticle and 
pulpy substance that covers the fibres. Another mode of 
accomplishing the same object is, by pressing the sharp 
semilunar extremity of a long flat stick against any fixed sur- 
