A MAGUEY PLANT IN BLOOM : MEXICO 



A maguey plant in bloom is a sight one seldom sees in Mexico, for the reason that the 

 stem is cut at its base and hollowed out, and the sap that would have gone into the flowers 

 is collected and converted into that evil-smelling, criminal-making concoction called pulque. 

 When the sap gathers — at the rate of ten to fifteen pints a day — peons pass from plant to 

 plant, and with their mouths to one end of a tube suck it up, and then discharge it into con- 

 tainers made of pigskins, flung, saddle-bags fashion, across the back of an uncurried donkey. 

 The liquid is then carried to the central station, where it is "ripened" in vats of untanned 

 cowhide. 



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