222 
for which when finished and dried he gets from 25 to 50 cents.* per 
arroba (25 pounds) either in money, or as is almost universal, in credit 
at the ranch store. The price he receives depends largely on the 
distance from which the cogolhos have been brought. Under the rude 
to this is another piece of wood about 3 inches square, about an inch 
above and parallel with the ground. About half an “iach above this 
table the peg has a hole in it to receive the point of the tallador, 
M aneia | ironseraper in a wooden handle which the man takes in 
s right han 
Tearing a cogolho to pieces, taking a leaf and dextrously stripping 
the thorny nigh from its sides, he places a corn-cob in the hollow of 
the base end of the leaf to make a handle, then with the simultaneous 
eae of both hands the ite of the ¢adlador is placed in the peg hole 
tallador and the end oe the pre write fibre is twisted round the cob 
(which the operator holds as if it were a s pade handle), and the process 
is repeated for - beu end (the base) of the leaf. When the pile of 
to 
in the sun to ay. € cause of discolouration is a weak arm, which 
some of the pulp to remain on the fibre and give it a green tinge 
owing to pressure; another is leaving it too long in the sun or 
air, which gives it a brownish tin inge. 
en a Lechuguilla has been once pulled it is called lechuguilla 
capona, and all su succeeding growths of heart leaves will have withered 
burnt looking ends, owing to ES See points of the young Lata 
leaves being scorched’ by This accounts for the rusty ends 
seen on. istle fibre in this conntry. ona fter each pulling, too, des bre of 
leav: become and coarse, 
The Haciendados generally bale the fibre in rough istle sacking in 
and when e 
* Mex. dollar worth 383d. 
