92 



HACIENDA SAN ANTONIO. 



nature has completed her time, and that the maguey is 

 upon the point of throwing up the high flowering stem* 

 He then cuts deeply and systematically into the very 

 heart of the plant, depriving it of the tight scroll of leaves 

 which envelopes the embryo flower stalk, and scoops out 

 a regular hollow of nearly a foot in diameter in the 

 centre. 



The sap vessels of the mutilated plant still perform 

 their allotted duty, and pour into this artificial bowl such 

 an abundant supply of juice, that it requires emptying 

 two or three times a day for eight or ten successive 

 weeks. It is computed that a single maguey will yield 

 six hundred pounds of sap in the course of the season. 

 This is the pulque. It is commodiously drawn from the 

 reservoir by means of suction into a long gourd, and 

 thence transferred to goatskin sacks, where it ferments 

 slightly, and is then drinkable and pleasant enough, if 

 not too old. When long bottled in these primeval re- 

 ceptacles, it takes a very peculiar schmaack, as a Dutch- 

 man w r ould say, disagreeable to many foreigners, but I 

 cannot say we found it sufficiently so to prevent our par- 

 taking of it with great satisfaction as long as we were in 

 the country. 



A brandy is distilled from the maguey, which is per- 

 niciously intoxicating when taken in too freely. The 

 ordinary pulque is slightly so, and the Indians frequently 

 render it highly deleterious by steeping the berries of the 

 schinus in it. 



It is hardly necessary to say that no maguey plant 

 which has been mutilated lives ; its uses are, however, 

 still various and important. The dried fibres are of uni- 

 versal substitution for hemp, in the manufacture of cord- 

 age and packing-cloths. 



There are estates in the valley of Mexico which re- 

 turn as much as thirty-six thousand dollars annually from 

 the culture of the maguey alone. 



This most useful plant comes to perfection on the va- 

 rious plateaux of the table land, from the height of five 

 thousand feet to that of nearly nine thousand feet, but 

 beyond a certain elevation it ceases to be so productive. 



