Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1886-09-08
IN MEXICO.

The Vegetable Wonder of the Sister Re
public-The Maguey-Pulque Making
[From the Kansas City Record.l
What the Western reserves IN Ohio,
or the Orange County dairy region to
New York City, the plains OF Apam
and Othembia are to Mexico's capital
with this difference, that instead OF
COWS the agave Americana, there
known as maguey), is MIXED, and
pulque is the product. Some idea OF
the magnitude of this singular indus
try 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, yielding the
railroad an income of about 81 900
per diem for freightage. The govern
ment derives an equal revenue from
the duty onpulque brought from these
celebrated Llanos (plains) de Apam
alone, for it is estimated that more
than 100000 pints of it are con-
sumed every day III the capital city.
Maguey-more commonly known IN
the North as the century plants as
much a, feature of this country as
trees are Of the United States. All
over the land it fourishes, cultivated
with care in many places, but spring
ing up as q weed in waterless deserts
and doing it's best on the stony sides
of the mountains. Every Mexican
hacienda raises more or less of it. The
mighty plants serve to mark the
boundaries of the lots and lands, two
rows OF them, with their gigantic
leaves and bay onet like thorns forming
an impenetrable fence. Not only are
the hedge rows thus proftably utilized,
but even those sterile lands, which
rattlesnakes disdain to inhabit, will
grow maguey, whose abundance OF
Juice is the more astonishing, since
meme can tell whence the mammoth
plant derives any moisture. l have
seen enormous century trees growing
out of beds of bare ROCKS, scarcely COW
cred by a semblance OF vegetable
earth, Haunting their cimetar shaped
leaves, rich and green, from fifteen to
twenty-five feet high. Neither heat
nor cold, drouth nor deluge affect the
naguey; but like the unfailing fountain
in the DESERT, It furnishes the poorest
Indian w. "a the beverage most pleas
ing to his taste, without money and
without price.
The tradition that the century plant
blooms once in a hundred years is quite
true, and any number Of centuries
might with equal propriety be added
to the staUement-for when It's natural
development has taken place IN flow
ering its destiny seems to have been
fulfilled and it dies without loss OF
time It is not often that one sees the
superb flower upon its colossal stem,
for the moment that an experienced
cuitivator observes his plant prepar-
ing to bloom he cuts a deep cavity in
it's heart, and folding the side leaves
around it forms a basin into which
all the Juice runs that nature intended
for the stalk and it's blossoming. Dur
ing the growth of the maguey it throws
out shoots which should be removed
from the parent stem in their second
year when about three feet high. A
shoot ready for planting may be
bought for a real (12b5 cents) and
readily sells for from So to SIS when
ready TO tap. The average of g plant
Is fifteen years, when it first shows
signs OF blossoming and is then capa-
BILE Of producing pulque. Certain ap-
pearances, known only to theinitiated,
Indicate when the central stem or
hampe, which sustains the flower, is
about to form in the heart of the
plant. IL the owner is not watching
to cut it out at the proper time the
hampe shoots upward with the rapid
ty of Jacks historic bean stalk, alb
sorbing all the sap that would other
wise make pulque. The sprouting of
the stalk generally takes place in No
L e la, e
cent cluster of flowers does not form
on its top till two months later. The
monster leaf that envelopes the hampe
the height of telegraph pole (which
it greatly resembles) and its browning
flowers are far beyond the reach of g.
man on horseback.
In it's unfermented state, the Juice of
the maguey is called Aqua miel, or
honey water, and is not unlike the
freshly drawn sap OF the sugar maple.
By the addition of little old pulque,
fermentation takes place in two or
three hours, and when considered fit
for drinking it is thick, white and
ropy, like buttermilk, which it some
what resembles In taste. An average
plant yields about eight quarts of
juice every day for three months, alter
which it dies, and is at once replaced
by q new one, which the provident
owner has been raising from shoots.
The poorest maguey should yield at
least 125 gallons of liquid before its
death. From the central basin
formed as above described) the Juice
is gathered by means OF a. cows horn,
bored at the point, inserted into the
end of a. long gourd. The sharp horn
is pushed down into the heart OF the
plant and through it into the gourd,
the fluid is sucked, syphon fashion,
after which it is emptied into pigskin
buckets and carried to the vat house.
Such is the infinite variety of uses to
which the maguey and it's fibers may
Zoe applied that it is to the Mexican