THE CENTURY PLANT 



2 i 7 



Fig. 8. Man and Dun key. 



woody exterior, and cut into disks 

 a few inches long which may be 

 seen peddled around the streets in 

 Durango, for instance — to be split 

 into strips and chewed like sugar- 

 cane. If a distillery is at hand, 

 the leaves are often cut away from 

 a plant of this sort, or one that has 

 not been allowed to form its quiote, 

 above their very thick ' pencas ' or 

 bases, and the trunk, so prepared, 

 is marketable for the manufacture 

 of mezcal. From data obtained of a 

 peon, I once figured out that away 

 from the principal pulque region 

 the value of a plant is practically 

 the same whether cut for agua miel 



Sometimes flowering is permitted, 

 and the plant yields nothing more 

 than a light rafter-pole, capable of 

 being sliced into good razor-strops, 

 a little green fodder for the cattle, 

 and a few dried leaves that may 

 be used for thatching a hut. At 

 other times the stalk, or l quiote,' 

 is cut down before the flowers have 

 too far sapped it, stripped of its 



Fig. 9. Where Pulqie is Sold. 



Fig. 10. Frothing from a Gourd. 



or, after harvesting its quiote, sold 

 to the mezcal distillery. 



Mezcal is a term applied com- 

 prehensively to the liquor obtained 

 by distillation from the fermented 

 juices of agaves. Four or five mil- 

 lion gallons of it a year are pro- 

 duced, and its value may amount 

 to some $2,000,000 gold. The 

 center for the manufacture of this 

 beverage is to the west of Guada- 

 lajara, and the town of Tequila, 

 situated there, has imposed its 

 name on the higher grade of 

 liquor, which is clear, smoky, rather 

 smooth, and with a characteristic 

 essential flavor; it usually con- 

 tains forty or fifty per cent, of 



