356 GUATEMALA. 
rapidly to a height of forty feet, or even more. The 
Mexican cultivator, however, nips this stem before it has 
attained two feet; and 
scooping a large hol¬ 
low in the cut stump, 
waits for the sap to 
collect. The yield from 
a vigorous plant— and 
the sap continues to 
run for three months 
— is from two to three 
hundred gallons ! The 
agave, it must be re¬ 
membered, grows in the 
driest soil. The fibre 
of the leaf is very 
strong, and is used to 
make paper of the 
toughest and most du¬ 
rable kind. 
The Agave ixtli, or 
henequen, is larger than 
the last species. When 
the plants are three 
years old the leaves 
may be cut, and a good 
plant should yield from 
fifty to a hundred 
leaves annually, the 
cutting being repeated every four months. The contin¬ 
uous fibres in a leaf are sometimes five and a half feet 
long, and are used by the natives without spinning. 
