VEGETABLE PEODTJCTIONS. ^85 
from which the small undergrowth is removed by cutting and 
burning. The roots of the old plants are then set out, at a dis- 
tance of five or six feet apart, and at the end of a year the leaves 
are cut and " rasped." When the pita is young its fibres are 
line and white, but as it increases in age they become longer 
and coarser. In this manner it is easy to select the quality of 
fibre required. In a wild state the thorns are very numerous, 
but by cultivation they are diminished both in size and number, 
and in many instances there are none at all. Even with the 
imperfect instruments used in cleaning the leaves, four and five 
pounds of fibres per day is only a fair average for the labor of a 
man. At San Miguel Chimalapa and San Juan Guichicovi the 
cultivation of the ixtle is quite extensive. In 1831, according 
to the statements of Senor Iglesias, the ixtle plantations in the 
northern division numbered 1221. 
Of the maize, frijoles, sugar, cacao, tobacco, coffee, and cotton 
raised on the Isthmus, it is difficult to speak in terms which 
might convey an adequate idea of the adaptation of the soil and 
climate to their cultivation, or the perfection to which they are 
susceptible of being brought. 
This is the native country of maize, and upon the wet land, 
milpas (those subject to periodic overflow), the yield is two crops 
annually, each of which averages sixty bushels to the acre, and 
without other labor than the mere planting. Indeed, it is no un- 
common sight to see the reaper and the sower in the same field. 
The lands usually selected, north of the Jaltepec, for milpas, are 
those which abound most in the palm, as being more easily 
cleared, — an operation which is performed by "girdling" the 
trees and burning the undergrowth. The planting is chiefly con- 
fided to the women and children, whose only implement is a 
pointed stick, with which a hole is made in the ground for the 
grains, which are then covered with the foot. On the margin of 
the Uspanapa, at some of the elevated points, three crops, each 
yielding seventy bushels to the acre, have been raised in a favora- 
ble year. In the central division of the Isthmus the bottom lands 
and borders of the streams are exclusively appropriated for its 
cultivation. To the east, in the valleys of the Rio del Corte and 
Chicapa, maize is grown in the same field with the tobacco, and 
