28 MEXICAN RESOURCES. 



cotton, but is very little cultivated, and the cotton product is diminishing yearly. 

 Durango's cotton crop he estimates at 4,000,000 pounds yearly, that of Sinaloa 

 at 1,700,000 and of Sonora at 1,000,000 pounds. The cotton-belt of Mexico is not 

 so well-defined as that of the United States, depending more upon altitude than 

 latitude ; but it is not so broad that cotton will ever become an important article of 

 export. In fact, the best goods manufactured for Mexico are from cotton of the 

 United States, iniported at Vera Cruz from New Orleans, and, in some instances, 

 transported on mule-back hundreds of miles into the interior. 



And this is notwithstanding the enormous yield, in iS3o, estimated at 25,177,760 

 kilograms, valued at $6,605,831. 



Ileneqiien, or Sisal Hemp {Agave Sisalensis}) — From an official report published 

 in Merida, capital of Yucatan, in 1876, it appears that the peninsula produced, in 

 that year, fibre to the amount of 22,000,000 pounds, the largest part of which (about 

 10,000,000) was exported in the shape of hemp to New York, London, and New 

 Orleans, and the Kpst shipped manufactured to Cuba and the Mexican ports. Tak- 

 ing one and a quarter pound of fibre as the average yearly production of each plant, 

 it was estimated that there was at that time more than 18,000,000 plants under cul- 

 tivation, keeping in operation over 420 scraping-wheels, moved by 229 steam-engines, 

 with a total of 1,733 horse-power, and 30 wheels moved by animal power. Each 

 wheel cleans daily, on an average, 300 pounds of fibre, working but half the year. 



"For some time after the cultivation of hemp — henequen — was seriously under- 

 taken by the planters of Yucatan (notwithstanding the invention of the 'fibre-clean- 

 er,' and the cheapness of wages for laborers that obtained), the merchants of that 

 section encountered many obstacles in introducing the staple in the markets of the 

 world. " For the numberless farms of Russia still produced their vast quantities of 

 that hemp from which is manufactured the stout cordage so highly esteemed by the 

 mariners of the civilized world, while on the arid plains of India the Manila fibre, 

 so highly rated for its flexibility and utility in the manufacture of rope for the run- 

 ning rigging of ships, flourished in luxuriant abundance, and to-day is the greatest 

 rival of the Southern henequen. 



" But in 1854 the war waged by France, England, and Sardinia against the empire 

 of Russia terminated for some time the traffic in hemp, so important to that empire. 

 The merchants and factors of Yucatan took advantage of this event to introduce 

 their staple into the markets of Europe. It was utilized by the English and French 

 in the manufacture of cordage and ropes, nor was it long before the discovery was 

 made that the proportion of one-fourth Manila fibre with three-fourths henequen 

 made excellent rope, sufficiently flexible for all practicable purposes, but at the 

 same time considerably cheaper than cordage composed of Manila alone. Thus a 

 great impetus was given to the culture of henequen in Yucatan. Thousands of 

 acres of stony land, so sterile as to unfit it for the cultivation of corn or vegetables, 

 were immediately utilized in the culture of Yucatan's only staple. Men who were 

 looked upon as the unfortunate owners of leagues of desert wastes, by the planting 

 of the henequen, in the course of six or seven years became wealthy personages, for 

 each plant on their farms yielded them an income of ten cents per year, even when 

 the price of the precious fibre ruled low. For some years after the Russian war 

 the price of henequen averaged about seven cents per pound, while the principal 



' See " Travels in Mexico," chap. iv. 



