fflora. 49 



very superior qualities both as a tonic and nutritive, when many live 

 on nothing but corn and pulque. In the mining districts, where a 

 great deal of nervous force is expended working in a high temperature 

 and under very unhealthy atmospheric conditions, this drink is almost 

 indispensable, and I imagine that when a way is discovered to keep it 

 for some time, and its medicinal qualities become better known, it will 

 be exported in considerable quantities and used by foreign countries. 

 From the agave of other districts a drink is made called mescal, which 

 has some remarkable therapeutic properties, the most celebrated being 

 made in a district of the State of Jalisco called Tequila, from which 

 it takes its name ; and in the very dry and stony regions of Yuca- 

 tan another species of agave grows, which seems to derive its food 

 wholly from the atmosphere, yielding a very good fibre, much like ma- 

 nilla, which we now export in large quantities, particularly to New 

 York. All the agave yields a first-class fibre as raw material, either for 

 paper or cordage some of it being rather coarse, like the Yucatan 

 henequen, and some of it almost as fine and glossy as silk, like pita. 



Henequen. By far the most important of our fibre industries is the 

 cultivation and preparation of the fibre known as " Sisal hemp," so 

 called from the name of the port from which it used to be principally 

 exported, and in the United States as " henequen hemp." The plant 

 which produces it is a species of agave which flourishes to best ad- 

 vantage in stony and arid land at the level of the sea. The present 

 prosperity of the state of Yucatan, a large proportion of which is too 

 sterile to yield any other crop, is due almost entirely to the develop- 

 ment of this industry. The plant requires very little cultivation, and 

 the separation and cleaning of the fibre is effected very cheaply. The 

 yield of fibre is estimated at the rate of 1000 to 1200 pounds per acre. 



Pulque. The pulque plant is indigenous to Mexico, often growing 

 wild on the uplands, where for months and years at a time no rain 

 falls ; and it is also largely cultivated on the Plains of Apam, a large 

 tract of land lying in the States of Mexico, Puebla, and Hidalgo, 

 about sixty miles east of the City of Mexico. The plants are trans- 

 planted when two or three years old with much care, then cultivated 

 in fields especially prepared for the purpose, each acre containing from 

 360 to 680 plants. 



Nature requires the plant to be milked, when the liquor is ready to 

 flow, for the use of man, else the superfluity of juices will cause the 

 growth of a thick stem from the centre of the plant, which shoots up 

 some ten or fifteen feet, putting out branches at the top, with clus- 

 ters of yellowish flowers. These branches are symmetrical, and the 

 effect is like a lofty, branched candlestick. 



When the pulque is first extracted, before the process of fermenta- 

 tion sets in, it is sweet and scentless, and in this state is preferred by 



VOL. 14 



