^ MONTHLY. I>* 
XXII. 
COLOMBO, JUNE 1st, 1903. 
No. 1^. 
SISAL, THE YUCATAN FIBRE 
■\Vritten for Modern Mexico by United States 
Consul E, H. Thompson, of Progreso. 
ISAL grass, sisal hemp, hene- 
quen, or simply "sisal,"' are 
the various commercial terms 
apply to a fiber that is neither 
a grass nor a hemp and is not 
produced to any great extent 
in Sisal. The name "sisal" 
was applied to it because it 
originally reached thd outer world through the port of 
that name. Sisal was, np to 1871, the only port of entry 
in Yucatan. It is 35 miles from Merida, the capital 
of the State and the great center of the Yucatan 
fibre market. In 1871 private enterprise, stimulated 
by the demands of commerce that required a shorter 
route to the coast, caused a board-gaage railroad 
to be built to the town of Progreso. The custom 
house was transferred there, and Sisal as a port 
of entry ceased to be. Progreso is a busy port. 
The wharves are lined with shipping and the streets 
are filled with hemp bales going out and general 
merchandise coming in. Two railroads connect it 
with Merida and a third is underway. 
The agave is one of the most characteristic 
plants of Mexico. One of the family, the Anave 
americana, produces the pulque, the intoxicating drink 
of the country. Great fields are covered with this 
plant upon the Mexican table-land, and long " pulque 
trains,"' like the milk trains of the Uuited States, 
roll daily into Mexico City. This beverage is prac- 
tically unknown to the inhabitants of Yucatan, and 
the agave that produces it is to be seen only as 
an exotic in the gardens and parks. Its place is 
taken by another member of the family, whose im- 
portance is more far-reaching. The Af)aV' sisnlensis 
furnishes a fibre that not only helps to knit firmer 
the commerce of the whole world, but binds the 
sheaves of wheat so that the price of bread in every 
la ia made cheaper for its use, To the casual 
observer a field of the fiber plant and oue of the fiber 
plant are very similar in appearance. Both show t-he 
same peculiar green, the same many-thorned leaves. 
Investigation, however, soon shows the difference. 
There are three known varieties of the species 
growing wild in the forests of lucatan — the Chelem, 
the cahum and the citamci — and I think that I have 
found a fourth wild variety during ray explorationi 
in tl>e interior. There are also two varieties of 
the cultivated plant— the yaxci, or gr.een fiber, and 
the sacci, or white fiber. The last-name 1 plant is 
the most cultivated and the one producing the sisal 
hemp of commerce. The primeval inhabitants pro- 
bably did not at a first attempt to extract the 
fiber from the thick pulp, but took the leaf and 
wilted it in the fire, then split it and used the 
splits as thongs. The leaves so treated make thonga 
of great strength, and as they dry they bind with 
wonderful force. In the primitive ferms of habita- 
tion in the region the mud and wattle " nagV are. 
bound together by these sb^eite or fiber-wilted leaves 
They are shapely, water-tight and durable, and the 
native bnilder"s tool is a heavy, sharp-edged kuife. 
Not a spike or nail or metal of any kind enters 
int5 the building. Later the people found that if 
they cleaned off the thick pulp and the green cor- 
rosive juice thej could get a firmer hold and so 
bind tighter. Then they learned to twist the shreds 
and this idea led to the making of ropes and cords. 
The wild agave, known aa the chelem, is, I believe 
the progenitor of the cultivated sacci. The fiber te 
of good quality, but scant in quanti'y. Tl»e fiber 
of the cahum is long and silky, but even scantier 
in quantity than that of the chelem, and it is said 
to be brittle. In ancient times the agave, ot bene- 
quen, was one of the most important plants of 
the peninsula. At a time when most of Europe 
was in the pall of utter da.kness, when the "Parisii " 
lived in caves and the Gauls in '' wattlijd hunts." 
the priests and rulers of Yucatan lived in stone 
temples and palacea, Up the steep side* of the 
