152 The National Geographic Magazine 



From a photograph by E. H. Thompson 



A Field of Young Sisal Plants— Two Years Old 



the leaf is cleaned in the ancient method 

 (see illustration on next page) , and the 

 makers of the finest hammocks, those 

 worth their weight in silver, will not use 

 a fiber produced by any other method. 



THE AGAVE PLANT 



The agave is one of the most char- 

 acteristic plants of Mexico. One of the 

 family, the Agave a?nericana, produces 

 the pulque, the intoxicating drink of 

 the country. Great fields are covered 

 with this plant upon the Mexican table- 

 land, and long "pulque trains," like 

 the milk trains of the United States^ 

 roll daily into Mexico city. 



This beverage is practically unknown 



to the inhabitants of Yucatan, and the 

 variety that produces it is to be seen 

 only as an exotic in the gardens and 

 parks. Its place is taken by another 

 member of the family, whose impor- 

 tance is more far-reaching. The Agave 

 sisalensis furnishes a fiber that not only 

 helps to knit firmer the commerce of 

 the whole world, but binds the sheaves- 

 of wheat so that the price of bread in 

 every land is made cheaper for its use. 

 To the casual observer a field of the 

 pulque plant and one of the fiber plant 

 are very similar in appearance. Both 

 show the same peculiar green, the same 

 many-thorned leaves, but a nearer view- 

 soon shows the difference. 



