Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 



117 



These efforts are in the right direction and cannot possibly be made too intense. 

 It may even be added that efforts toward crossing and hybridizing in the producing 

 of the best varieties are not only advisable but most urgently necessary. The 

 Castillo, rubber industry is a new one and still in the experimental stage of devel- 

 opment. On the Dona Maria and La Zacualpa plantations in Chiapas every 

 effort is being made to determine which of the several varieties of Castillo, pro- 

 duces the greatest flow of latex through the greatest proportion of the year. As 

 these experiments are being carried on it will be very easy to try hybrid varieties 

 by every possible combination in cross pollination, until one variety is evolved 

 which without question is the most productive. But it is most important to re- 

 member that in two distinct belts the most productive variety may not be one and 

 the same. 



Similarly, a variety of coffee may easily be produced which will be resistant 

 to the destructive mildew which is so common on these plantations. The annual 

 loss from this one source alone, the coffee mildew, would more than pay for very 

 extensive and comprehensive experimentation by trained horticulturists. Although 

 one is accustomed to think of the banana as beyond improvement, yet in this field, 

 too, there is vast room for improvement in the way of size, flavor, number of 

 "fingers" to the "hand" and "hands" to the bunch, etc. It is subject to a very 

 destructive bacterial disease in Central America, not far from Mexico, and re- 

 sistant varieties must be discovered or developed. The immense extent of this in- 

 dustry demands that the yield each year be up to the highest standard possible. 



The culture of the maguey, or agave, for pulque manufacture, needs but one 

 thing to make it of great benefit to the nation — extermination! Just as the manu- 

 facture of intoxicating liquors in the United States or any other country is simply 

 sapping the virile strength of the nation and adding absolutely nothing in the way 

 of productive labor, just so does the very extensive culture of the maguey add 

 nothing of productivity and, moreover, it is sapping the life blood of the under 

 class of the nation. One of the great sources of income in the state of Yucatan is 

 the henequen fibre plant, belonging to the same genus, Agave. At the National 

 Museum of the commission of biological survey in Tacubaya, Federal District, 

 there are samples of the fibre produced from the various species of Agave found 

 in the Republic. A substitution of maguey verde, or some other good fibre pro- 

 ducing agave for the maguey bianco, the pulque plant, would mean a tremendous 

 increase to the national resources and at the same time do away with one of the 

 greatest evils of the country. There is the same reason for destroying this plant 

 wherever it exists in the country as there was for putting the ban on the opium 

 poppy in China. 



The vast areas in the state of San Luis Potosi and neighboring states now 

 covered densely with cactus, both Opuntia and Cereus varieties, could be profitably 

 cleared and planted to some fibre bearing agave. It is barely possible that the 

 cactus thus cleared off might be put to some practical use. In the mean time 

 there are hundreds of square miles already cleared and admirably suited to the 

 growth of the maguey for fibre. 



