Fee. 1, 1900.] THE TEOPICAL AGEICULTURIST. 
551 
SISAL GEASS iN MEXICO. 
Henequen, or sisal grass, has been in use among the 
inhabitants of Yucatan from the earliest times. The 
United States Consul at ProKreso says that be has 
found it imbedded in the form of cord in the stucco 
fisr-jres that ornnmented the fa3ades of the mysterious 
ruined cities of Yuoatan. There are two wild varieties 
of hent^quen called by the natives " oahum '' and 
" chekm." The fibre cf these wild plants is used to 
some extent by the natives iu the making of cordage 
for domestic use, and some claim that hammocks 
made from the fibre of the cahum are the best. It is, 
however, the cultivated plant that fitrnishes commerce 
with the fibre known as sisal grass. Sisal being the 
old pore from which the fibre was first exported. Like 
the wild plant, the cultivated- one is divided into 
two varieties — the •' zacci," or white hemp, and the 
" yaxci," or green hemp. Tiie zaoci is considered 
the finest and best, but the yaxci is a good fibre. It 
has been generally supposed that sisal grass, as an 
article of commerce, has been known only within the 
last fifty years, but this is a mistake. ISetweeu the 
years 1750-1780 quite a fiirore was created ivi com- 
mercial countries of the Old World by the discovery 
that the fibre of a plant fotind in Yucatan was good 
for ship's cordage. Spain sent over a Royal Com- 
mission to report upon the discovery, and in a few 
years many of Spain's commercial and war vessels 
were using cordage made from henequen. For some 
reason, probably because of the primitive method of 
preparing it, the use of silk fibre gradually declined, 
until at the commencement of this century the former 
trade had been forgotten. In 18-17, Yucatan, until 
then a cattle -producing, cotton-growing, and logwood- 
exporting country, was in the throes of an Indian 
war. The Maya Indians had risen in rebellion, and 
had succeeded in driving the white race out of the 
most fertile portions of the peninsula, forcing them 
to rely for means of subsistence v.von the products of 
a sterile rocky belt ; too poor to sustain cattle in any 
numbers. 
HENEQUEN, 
was the only useful plant that would grow on 
such a soil. The first plantation was esta- 
blished in 1848, and the 50 acres planted were 
cleared by the use of the tonka, the primitive cleaner 
used by the native Maya. There was a good demand for 
the new fibre in ship rigging, audit gradually came into 
general use, until sisal grass was a well -known article of 
commerce. The tonka was a piece of hard wood, 
shaped something like a handsaw, having the end curved 
in. The leaf of the henequen was drawn through the 
sharp curve, and the fibre was stripped of the thick, 
pulpy covering. The leaf was subjected to this opera- 
tion two or three times, until the fibre was left clean 
and free. This tedious process was not long tolerated. 
A machine was found to increase the output, but the 
demand again outgrew the supply. The machine 
known as the " Raspador," or the " Soles," from its 
inventor, came into use, and has held its own almost 
up to the present day. It consists of a large- toothed 
wheel, that scrapes the pulp and leaves the fibre. Its 
simplicity made it peculiarly fitted for use by the 
native servants. Plantations came to be known as 
plantations of one, two, or a dozen wheels. The 
constantly increasing trade necessitated still more 
rapid means of fibre cleaning. Many new machines 
were produced, each of which was said by its inventor 
to be far better than any of the others. The exporta- 
tion of sisal grass during the ten years ended December 
31st, 1898, E;mounted to 585,000,000 tens. It has been 
said that the best fibre-producing plant grows on the 
poorest and most rocky soil, but this does not 
accord with experiments recently made. One method of 
planting and cultivating is as follows : — The field is first 
carefully prepared and burnt. The burning produces a 
r.ertain amount of ashes, and many planters set out 
seed corn at the same time they plant the henequen. 
The one does not interfere with the other in the least, 
and the corn crop helps to pay the cost of the hene- 
quen. The henequen plant is propagated not by seeds, 
by scions, or suckers. The plant produces aeeds, 
and in a natural state propagates itself by both seedSj 
and scions, but the planter uses only suckers from 
18 to 20 inches high. By this method he can produce 
a field of hea?quen redy to cut within flve'^ years, 
whereas by seed planting he would have to wait from 
eight to nine years. Once planted and properly 
tended — that is, cleared of weeds twice a year, and 
not under or overcut — a field will last twenty years, and 
instances are not wanting of fields that have lasted 
longer. A leaf is ready to cut when it extends at 
right angles to the trunk or the plant. A healthy 
vigorous plant in the maturity of its growth should 
yield from 18 to 24 leaves. One thousand leaves 
should produce from 50 1b. to 601b. of good, clean 
fibre. This a.mount is fair average. When the plants 
in an old field send up a flower-stalk, it is nature's 
signal that the crop is finished. The old plants must 
then be clipped of all useful leaves and cut down, to 
allow the yoifcg scions (which should have been 
already pli*uted between the old plants) ventilation 
for growth. Bad cleaning-, allowing rot to be pro- 
duced by the acids nascent in the plant pulp, and 
dampness, produce red and mould-stained fibre, of less 
than one-half the value of the good, clean, white fibre. 
This is rarely exported, but is sold at home for domes- 
tic use. There are in Yucatan neai-ly 1,200 henequen- 
producing plantations of various sizes. The largest 
plantation, or, rather, the plantation producing the 
largest output, is on the line of the broad gauge rail- 
way between Merida and Progress. It is called 
Ticilchi;, and produces about 1,000 bales, or 375,000 lb. 
of cleaned fibre per month. — Journal of the Svciety of 
Arts. 
^ _ 
KEROSENE FOK SAN JOSE SCALE. 
Some months ago a correspondent reported that, 
as a last hope, he had painted with kerosene 
direct from the tin some young trees badly infested 
with San Jose scale. He had evidently got the idea 
of this treatment from an article which appeared 
in the Ac/rictdttiral Gazette for May, 1898. When 
the paragraph about the success of his experiment 
appeared in the Gazette there was much comment, 
but according to Bitlletin 138, New Jersey Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station, Professor J. B. Smith 
(whose article was printed in the Gazette, May 1898) 
hai during the past two years treated nearly 4,000 
trees of all the ordinary orchard fruits, except 
cherries, with crude petroleum, either undiluted or 
mixed with from 60 to 75 per cent of water. The 
trees operated upon varied from stock just out of the 
nursery row to old trees in full bearing. 
"Not a single case of injury to any tree treated 
in winter has been observed ; on the contrary, in 
a number of eases the oil seems to have acted as 
a stimulant, and the sprayed trees have shown greater 
vigour and better foliage than those untreated. In 
no case has there been any injury to fruit buds, 
but on this point the observations are incomplete, 
no early winter treatments having been made in 
bearing orchards. Applications made after January 
15th (midwinter) have in no way lessened the crop 
of apples and pears the year following, and appli- 
cations made in March have not injured the fruit 
buds in peach and plum (July and September here). 
Crude petroleum is not suited for a summer appli- 
cation, either pure or diluted, because of its choking 
effect on foliage and its persistence'. This, however, 
increases its value for winter work as compared with 
kerosene ; the latter acts at once or not at all and 
evaporates very soon after it has been applied 
in fact, to avoid injury, it must be applied 
in such a way as to favonr rapid evaporation. Crude oil 
does not evaporate readily ; it is penetrating, and 
it applied with a brush half-way-rouud a branch, will 
often soak round the branch completely ; it remains 
as an oily or greasy surface coating for many weeks, 
and no scales can set on this coating within a month 
of the application and live ; it does not ordinarily pene- 
trate through even the surface layer of bark ; under 
the mostiinfavourable circumstances, if the outer layer 
is penetrated, the inner layer remains healthy and 
put! 
