Henequen — The Yucatan Fiber 



55 



There are three known varieties of 

 the species growing wild in the forests 

 of Yucatan — the chelem, the cahum, 

 and the citamci — and I think that I have 

 found a fourth wild variety during my 

 explorations in the interior. There 

 are also two varieties of the cultivated 

 plant — the yaxci or green fiber, and the 

 sacci or white fiber. The last-named 

 plant is the most cultivated and the one 

 producing the sisal hemp, or henequen, 

 of commerce. 



CULTIVATION 



A thin, rocky limestone soil is gen- 

 erally supposed to be the best for the 

 growth of the sacci plant. Experience 

 indicates that the fiber grown upon this 

 class of soil has a percentage of tensile 

 strength greater than that produced on 

 the richer lands, though the last is more 

 flexible and is longer. The percentage 

 of safety allowed by the cordage-makers 

 is so high that I doubt if the diminished 

 tensile strength of the rich-land hemp 

 would seriously affect the quality of the 

 output. Contrary to the general idea, 

 a poor sandy soil is not congenial to the 



growth of a large, full-sized fiber plant. 

 Few, if any, good-sized, well-formed 

 plants grow very near the coast line. 

 The best Yucatan fiber plant seems to 

 be produced in a zone or belt following 

 the coast, about 12 miles away from it 

 and 70 miles wide. 



The plant can be propagated in va- 

 rious ways — by seeds, by cuttings, and 

 by scions or suckers. The first-men- 

 tioned method is now never undertaken. 

 Very few of the abundant seeds are fer- 

 tile, and the time lost in raising the seed- 

 lings is great. The second method — by 

 cuttings — is frequently undertaken ; the 

 top of an old, nearly worn-out plant is 

 taken just before the long pole that 

 should bear the flowers shoots up. It 

 is cut off and trimmed of all save 

 the newest leaves, and then planted in 

 the ground as though it were a scion. 

 These plants are said to produce earlier 

 than others. 



The general method, however, of pro- 

 ducing a field of the sisal plant is as fol- 

 lows : A field is cut and the refuse 

 burned ; then a month or so before the 

 rainy season the "hijos," or scions of 



From a photograph by E. H. Thompson 



Drying Sisal Fiber at One of the Large Plantations — Yucatan 



