THE CENTURY PLANT 213 



after a day of blinding dust on a hacienda within sight of the 

 great snow peak of Orizaba, as I asked myself how people could find a 

 living in such a place, I noticed the arrival of a wagon-load of dry 

 fodder in the enclosure, quickly followed by another and another 

 and still others, until some twenty had come in — each drawn by five 

 mules. Then I began to realize the number of draft animals alone 

 that were engaged in bringing in the night's food for the others, and 

 was less surprised when, in droves of twenty or fifty, sheep and 

 cattle began to appear from remote points — until I ceased counting 

 and returned to my original question with even greater wonder. It is 

 on these large estates that the maguey — almost the only green thing 

 to be seen in the long dry season — finds its place as one of the many 

 forms of agricultural resource; the ground between them being fre- 

 quently made to yield an annual grain or other crop which the agaves 

 supplement as, here and there, they mature one at a time. 



The pulque maguey is a large plant, and its rosette of thick leaves, 

 though appearing to lie next the ground, is really spaced along a stout 

 trunk as large as a small barrel. The whole, charged with sap, weighs 

 several tons. If left to itself, as it is in gardens on the Kiviera, where 

 it is called A. Salmiana, like the century plant it produces a gigantic 

 scape, topped with a candelabrum of flowers, when somewhere in the 

 neighborhood of fifteen years old. This is never permitted on the 

 large plantations, for the plant possesses its maximum value when it 

 has reached vegetative maturity and the scape is about to develop. At 

 the critical moment, known from the appearance of the central bud, 

 this is cut out and a shallow cavity is made in the crown of the 

 trunk, which is covered by a stone, pieces of maguey leaves, or other 

 protection. Into the cavity so formed the sap exudes. It is removed 

 two or three times a day, the surface being scraped and the cavity 

 slightly enlarged each time, until at last nothing but a thin shell of the 

 trunk remains, the leaves meantime having given up their content of 

 fluid and dried to their hard framework — as happens naturally during 

 the flowering period of all the larger agaves, when the reserve of sap 

 is drawn into the rapidly growing scape and flowers. 



For a period of three months or more a good plant yields a gallon 

 or two of sap daily, and its value may be not far from ten dollars on 

 an average; from which it will be seen that a large maguey plantation 

 represents a considerable item in the assets of a landed proprietor of 

 the plains of Apam. 



Often the peons who cut the matured plants fasten part of the- 

 bud leaves on to the spines of the outer ones, so that those in bearing 

 may not be overlooked as the tour of the plantation is made by the 

 laborers who gather the sap. One of these men, making his rounds, 

 is an odd sight. Over his back, usually separated from it by a zarape 

 or blanket if he is fortunate enough to have one, or by a piece of 



