Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-06-26
A VEGETABLE cow
WHICH REQUIRES MILKING
THREE TINES 4 DAY.
1t is Used for Fences, Paper, Cloth,
Brushes, Brooms, Liquor,
and Other Purposes.

Brushes, Brooms, Liquor,
and Other Purposes.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD UsIosI
Cry OF MEXICO, June is, 1886.
What the :. Western Reserve is to Ohio,
or the Orange county dairy region to New
York city, the Plains of Apam and 0tum-
ba are to Mexico-with this difference, that
instead of cows the Agare americana Tor
century plant, here known as maguey), is
MIXED, and pulque is the product. Some
idea of the magnitude of this singular kind
of agriculture may be derived from the
fact that two special pulque trains run
daily into the City of Mexico with the
same regularity that milk trains come into
our metropolitan cities; these yielding the
railroad an average revenue of thousand
dollars day for freightage The Govern
ment derives an equal revenue in duties on
pulque brought 20 the capital from ADam
alone Maguey Is as much a feature of
this country as trees are of the United
States All over the land it hourishes,
cultivated with care in many places, but
springing up as a weed on waterless deserts
and hourishing on the rocky sides of the
mountains. Every Mexican hacienda
raises more or less of it. The mighty
plants answer for hedges to mark the
boundaries of lots and lands two rows OF
them, with their enormous leaves ana
bayonet-like thorns, forming
AN IMPEsBTRABLE FENCE.
Not only are the hedge-rows thus profita-
bly, utilized, but any lands which even the
rattlesnake disdains to inhabit will grow
maguey whose abundance OF juice is the
more astonishing since none can tell
whence the mammoth plant derives any
moisture. have frequently seen glgan-
tic maguey, growing out of a bed of rock
scarcely covered by semblance of vegeta-
bic earth, lifting its cimetar-shaped leaves,
rich and green, from fifteen to twenty-five
feet high. Neither heat nor cold, drought
nor foundations affect it: but, like the I'M
failing fountain in the desert, it furnishes
the poorest Indian with the beverage most
pleasing to his taste, without money and
without price. The tradition that the
Towering maguey, or century plant, blooms
but once in q hundred years, is quite true,
and any number of centuries might be
added to the statement, for when its nat
ural development has taken place and its
destiny fulfilled, it dies without loss of
time. 1t is not often, among cultivated
maguey, that we see the superb flower
upon its colossal stem, for the moment that
the experienced cultivator sees his plant
preparing to blossom he cuts into its heart
and covers the cavity over with the side
leaves, when all the juice which nature in
tended for the great stem OF the flower runs
into the basin thus formed. During the
growth of the maguey it throws out shoots,
which are removed from the parent stem
in their second year, when about three feet
high A shoot ready for planting, which
costs real (12l cents), will readily sell for
from $40 to SIS when ready to cut. At the
age of from ten to fifteen years maguey
begins to show signs of blossoming, and is
then capable of
PRODUCING PULQUE.
Certain appearances, known only to the
initiated, indicate when the central stem,
or hdmps, which sustain the flower, is
about to form in the center of the plant.
II the owner is not watching to cut out
the heart at the proper time, the hamps
starts upward with the rapidity of Jacks
historic beanstalk, absorbing all the sap
which would otherwise make pulque. The
sprouting of the stalk generally takes place
in November or December but the mag
nificent cluster of flowers does not form on
Its top till two months later. Then the
monster leaf that envelops the hamps I'M
folds slender stalk to the hight of a tele-
graph pole (which ii much reSembles), and
its browning flowers are far beyond the
reach of q man on horseback. The Juice
of the maguey in its unfermented state
is called aqua miel, or honey water"
1t is gathered from the central basin
formed, as above mentioned, by cutting
into the heart by means of long gourd
into which a cows horn is inserted, bored
at the point. Through this horn and into
the gourd the juice is sucked by applying
the mouth to hole on the opposite side Of
the gourd. The basin yields from four to
eight quarts of juice per diem-according
TO the size and thriftiness of the plant-for
about three months, after which the plant
dies and is replaced by new one, which
the provident owner has been raising from
shoots. The poorest maguey will yield at
least lbs gallons before it dies.
ITS VARIOUS USES.
But even in death its usefulness is not
over, for its valuable fibers may still be
utilized and its leaves pounded into paper
pulp. Indeed, such is the infinite variety
of uses to which the maguey and its fiber
may be put, that it is to the Mexican In
dian what the rice-plant is to the China
man or the reindeer to the Esquimaux
1t seems a special gift of Nature
to supply all his simple wants
its coarse cloth sometimes making his first,
last and only garment. and its strong rope
tying down his coffin-lid. The fiber of the
maguey leaf, beaten and spun. forms a fine
and beautiful thread-glossy as silk in
texture, and stronger than linen, which lat
ter it most resembles when woven into
fabric. 1t is manufactured into other
coarser cloths, also into paper, sacking,
sail-cloth, etc. The rope made from it is
called Manila hemp, and is by far the best
in use, being of uncommon strength and
excellence. Maguey fiber, when pressed, is
equal to the best henequin and jute of Yu-
catan for cordage, and its pulp is unsur-
passed for paper-making. The dried leaves,
cut into coarse slivers, form most of the
brooms and whitewash brushes of the
country; and as a substitute for bristles is
made into serub-brooms busting brushes,
and those tiny brooms which take the place
of combs among the common people
Beautiful fancy baskets, money bags,
purses, satchels, and thousand other
toys, trinkets and ornaments are woven
from its fiber. Has your horse q Sprain,
your donkey bruise, your COW an ailment
"a maguey Leaf, pounded and bound like
poultice upon the injured member, is
considered q certain cure. In short, SO
varied and manifold are its uses that 10
enumerate them all is impossible But the
greatest value of the msguey comes from
the vast amount of
INTOXICATING LIQUOR IT PRODUCES.
Two species of it are cultivated-one in the
desert portions of the country. from which
ale1cdt Mexican tangle-foot ~ is distilled
from the expressed juice of the leaves an6
the other IS the Towering maguey, de
scribed above-that wonder of the yepe
table world, from which pulque is drawn
A brandy called teq,ild is also made
by an ancient system dating back t
the days of the Aztecs, which consist:
in simply roasting the maguey bulbs il
hole dug in the ground. The cooked
bulbs yield swedish liquid which, wher
distilled, is as colorless and almost as taste
less as water-hut one can get hopelessly
befuddled on a smaller quantity of it, anc
remain SO longer, than on any other kHow1
liquor. The maguey can also be made tc
Yield an excellent quality of molasses. by
clarifying the sweet decoction of the bulb
FMS decoction, when distilled, produce:
brandy. but undstilled may be made into
thoiasses and sugar superior to that pressed
rom Cnlnese sugar-cane The pointed
tnorns which terminate the gigantic leaves
are strong as nails and sharp as needles
ana 70 TINS Jay, as in primitive times, they
sometimes serve the Indians for nails
needles and pms. The sanguinary priests