luNE 1, 19031 The tropical agbiculturist. 
799 
stub aa close as is compatible with the safety of 
the plant, and trims the eide and end thorns. 
Yucatan ingenuity has attached to the corba a device 
like an apple and pptato parer. This cuts oti the 
side spines with ouiy a very small portion of 
liber. 
A thin, rocky, limestone soil is generally supposed 
to be the best for the growth of the sacci plant. 
Experience indicates that the fiber grown upon this 
class of soil has a percentage of tensile strength 
greater than that produced on the richer lands, 
though the last is more flexible and is longer. The 
percentage of safety allovsed by the cordage-makers 
is 80 high that 1 doubt if the diminished tensile 
strength of the rich-land hemp would seriously affect 
the quality of the output. Contrary to the general 
idea, a poor sandy soil is not congenial to the 
growth of a large, full-sized fiber plant. Few, if 
any, good-sized, well-formed plants grow very near 
the ccast line. The best Yucatan fiber plant seems 
to be produced in a zone or belt following the 
coast, about 12 miles away from it and 70 miles 
wide. The plant can be propagated in various ways 
— by seeds, by cuttings and by scions or suckers. 
The first-mentioned method is now never undertaken. 
Very few of the abundant seeds are fertile and the 
time lost in raising the seedlings is great. The 
second method — by cuttings — is frequently under- 
taken ; the top of an old, nearly worn-out plant is 
taken just before the long pole that should bear 
the flowers shoots up. It is cut off and trimmed of 
all save the newest leaves and then planted in the 
ground aa though it were a scion. These plants 
are said to produce earlier than others. The general 
method, however, of producing a field of the sisal 
plant is as follows : A field ia cut and the refuse 
burned ; then a month or so before the rainy season 
the "hijos," or scions of sisal, that have sprouted 
under the shelter of the parent plant are rooted 
out of the ground, when they get to be IS or 20 
inches high, and thrown in a heap. There they 
lie for two or three months exposed to the sun and 
the weather. Just before the rainy season, when 
they seem to be dried up and decayed, they are 
carried to the cleared fields and planted in rows. 
Formerly, they so planted the young plants that 
they were separated by spaces of barely two yards, 
but of late years it has been found best to space 
them so that they will be in lines, each plant sepa- 
rated from the one preceding it by a space of li yards 
and the lines 4 yards apart (about 1,100 plants "to the 
acre.) Thus long and wide lanes are formed between 
the rows that facilitate cutting and carriage of the 
leaves and also Isssen the wounding of the leaves 
by the spines and thorns of their neigbours. 
Previous to 1889 but little attempt was made to 
grade the hemp. Yaxci, sacci, short staple, long 
staple all went as "siaal." Now, a fine, white 
fibre, well cleaned and baled, can command a notably 
better price than mixed fibre, ill-cleaned and badly 
baled. 
The hope of tho future ia in the careful selection 
of hemp plants. Many plantations, more by good 
fortune than otherwise, aro atoeked with flbre-produ- 
ciug plants of a high order ; others are handicapped 
by plants producing a meager fibre. The quality 
of the soil in both cases seems to be the same ; the 
difierence is in the class of plants. This phase is 
a comparatively new one on the plantations of 
Yucatan fiber and has only recently been taken 
into serious consideratiou, 
The scion when planted (" anchored '' would perhaps 
be the better word, as it ia more often held by 
heavy stones than by the earth around it), needs 
no special care or iirigntion. Once or twice a season 
the fields are roughly weeded. The plant thrives, 
and generally in about five years the earlier leaves 
commence to extend tho mselves laterally nt right 
angles to the trunk of the plant. This is nature's 
signal th\,t thd fiber h*3 reached its highest point 
of tensile strength, and that the leaves are ready 
to be cut, The native cutters then throng the field 
aud with tbeir oorbas deftly cut the leaves close to 
the trunk, trim off each line of aide thorns at a 
single stroke, snip off the horny end and bind tip 
the leaves in bundles. Tram cars take these bundles 
and carry them to the cleaning machine. While 
experience and dexterity are required the work is 
not hard or the hours long to the cutter of hene- 
quen leaves. 
Fire is its greatest enemy. Hot seasons do not 
affect it. In fact, the heat of the sun, especially 
when accompanied by dampiiess, seems to act as a 
tonic. It is then, if ever, that the plant recovers 
from its injuries. The greatest heat experienced in 
Yucatan for the last ten years was July, 19C0, whem 
the thermometer reached 119° F. in the half shade 
of a veranda ; 147° F. has been experienced in the 
sun on the principal street of Merida. Long droughts 
may delay its development, and by wilting the 
mature leaves causes them to double and injury 
the fiber, but it cannot stop the ultimate growth 
of the healthy plant, once it is well rooted, Rainy 
seasons do not seriously afl'ect the plants, except those 
in stagnant water. This werikens the plant, but this 
condition is not common. Cold seasons of the kind 
that Yucatan experience do not seriously affect the 
plant. The coldest known period was in February, 
1899, when the thermometer registered 47° P. 
But tire conquers it. Let a spark from a locomo- 
tive, the lighted end of a cigarette, or the embers 
of a fire made to heat the bread of the native workers 
start the flames in en ill-cleaned field, and nothing 
but a miracle can save the crop from total loss. 
It is said that some planters in the past have taken 
advantage of the susceptibility of the plant to art! 
ficial heat, and when young plants were desired for 
export they were doctored before delivery by having 
their roots heated over embers or dipped into boiling 
water. The effects of this treatment- are not per- 
ceptible for a time, and possibly this fact may 
make clear to some enthusiastic foreign planter why 
his scions, purchase with so much care and expense, 
never grew and prospered. Isaturally, the Mexicans 
do not desire to have the plant that is such a 
valuable product of their country made common, 
Next to fire, a large black beetle is the greatest 
enemy of the cultivated sisal. This large, long- 
nosed insect, known to the natives aa the "max," 
may also attack the wild varieties, but I have not 
yet found evidence thereof. This beetle, I am told, 
is similar to the one that burrows into the trunks 
of the palm trees in Guatemala and British Honduras. 
At my request Dr. George F. Gaumer, an American 
physician, residing in Y'^ucatan, has kindly consented 
to give in a few brief words the life history of 
this inaect. Dr. Gaumer, whose atudies and writings 
upon the fauna and flora of Yucatan have made 
his name familiar to naturalists everywhere, writes ; 
The female insect lays its eggs on the trunk of 
the heuequen plant a few inches above the ground. 
When hatched the larva burrows into and through 
the outer bark to tho harder fiber of the interior, 
when it gcnor.-\lly takes an upward direction and 
burrows from 6 to 12 inches during its larval ex- 
isteuco. When full gco\vu it works its way to the 
bark, where it changes to a pupa aud so remains 
for some months, when it hatches into the adult 
beetle and emerges from the plant, which it leaves 
injured and weakened, but rarely kills. Three or 
more larvas in the same plant will surely destroy 
it, but that number is of very rare occurrence. 
The life of the plant can be greatly prolousied. 
I have seen fields old at ten years and others 
vigorous and hearty at nineteen years The plants 
should be originally healthy scions, the leaves must 
be cut at just the right time aud the long pole 
must bo nipped off before it has grown moi'e th:\u 
a mere protuberance. Once the pole has grown th« 
plant ages rapidly. 
