Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-02-16
THE AGAVE PLANT.
A Source Of Sustenance to the
People Of Mexico
From It Is Made a Kind of Liquor and
Palatable Dish-It Also Has
Some Medicinal Prop
critics.

conceded, but the greatest gift she has
bestowed on the poor natives who have
to get their living off the land is IN
doubtedly the agave, or. as it is some
times called, maguey plant. Three hun
dred and sixty-fve days of never-endine
sunshine are great attraction to tour
lists and invalids, but to the farmer they
are fatal and Mexico is still suffering
from a drought that has lasted nearly
four years, says the New York Herald
The maguey, for by that name it is
generally called IN Mexico, is what
is commonly known as the century
plant in this country. The differ
ence is that it is the real century plant
while ours is not. In appearance it is
much the same as the caucus tina,
adorns many of our northern gardens
and piazzas in the summer, only it is
larger and coarser. The leaves fire.
quently grow to length of ten OF
twelve feet, or even more, and bear
very sharp thorns.
1t takes the maguey about seven
years to blossom When it does bloom
a stalk from ten to twenty feet tall
shoots up from the center of the cluster
of leaves and puts forth large flowers,
which vary from a bright red color to a
deep purple. just as it is about to
flower the plant has reached the proper
stage for the use it is most frequently
put to--the making of pulque (pro-
nounced pool-key).
To get the pulque the leaves and
stalk are cut off a little above the
ground, and the trunk formed by the
joining of the roots, which is often a
foot in diameter, is followed out. In
this bowl, as it were, the sap which
was intended to nourish the flower ac-
cumulates and is drawn out every day.
Dipping is the commonest way of get
ting the sap out of the hollow, though
suction pumps are sometimes used on
the big plantations now, and the prim-
tive way was to draw it through a
pipe with the mouth and then blow it
into handy receptacle.
After it is taken from the plant the
sap must stand twenty-four hours to
ferment, and twenty-four hours after
the fermentation it spoils. Both French
and American companies have tried
time and again to find some way of
preserving pulque SO it could be ex-
ported, but as yet none have succeeded.
Pulque is shipped from the planta-
tions in barrels and pigskins, and some
idea of the amount of it that is drunk
can be formed from the fact that forty
car loads of it are taken to the City of
Mexico alone every morning. All but
a very little of this is consumed the day
it is received, and what is left over
spoils, and is either thrown away or
sold for half price as ''sour pulque'
The ''cantisnas," or barrooms, where
pulquc is sold, generally supply that
drink alone They are very small,
dirty and i'll smelling, in which they re-
semble the crowd that hangs around
them. The liquor-if it can be called
such-is brought around in barrels, on
carts drawn by solitary and forlorn
looking donkeys, as soon as the pulque
train arrives, and is sold by the greasy
pigskin.
It's taste is similar to mixture of cod
liver oil and buttermill1 that has gone
wrong 1t is the color of skim milk
and strings" like molasses, but is not
SO thick. But when one becomes used
to it, as he does after six or seven
drinks, it is not half so bad.
Pulque has very gentle but effectual
medicinal properties, and physicians
have claimed that it will cure Bright's
disease if taken in time. At the can
tinas" it is sold in glasses of three
sizes, the largest about the same as a
big schooner" and costs one, two and
three cents glass.
Excessive pulque drinking has a stu
pefying effect, and the idea that it is
wildly Intoxicating is all wrong. In its
distilled form it is called tequila or mes
cal and is very fiery. This liquor is sim
liar in appearance to gin and is violent,
" Intoxicating. 1t has been at the bot
tom of many a so-called ''Greaser up
rising"
The plantations on which maguey is
raised for pulque making are often
many acres in extent, and the plants
are set in rows, like corn. After a plant
has been tapped" it dies and is pulled
up, young plant being put in its
place. The maguey grows best in a Pc.
culiar, sandy soil, and there are several
distinct ''pulque regions"
The leaf of the naguey is not only
edible, but makes = very iine dish when
properly treated. The native Mexicans
dig pits and, taking the tenderest
leaves, bake them in holes over smol
dering fire, as charcoal is roasted. Wher
they are lust right they are taken out
the tough outer covering, which has
hardened into a shell, is peeled off, anC
the pith is very tender and tastes a gooC
deal like roast corn.
The last use this cactus is put to i!
the most remarkable one in climate
such as Mexico. as ice never forms of it
self except on the uninhabitable tops O.
the highest mountains. Mexico City i:
supplied by ice factories, but, of course
in rural districts ice cannot be obtained
that way.
Dug Up Il the Streets of Rome.
In Rcmc 81 miles of cew streets yielded
the following ''drrups:" Nine hundred
and five agnnhoraa. 1850 terra colt;
lamps. 1924 inscriptions on marble, z
columns rare marble. 313 pieces of col
umns. l57 marble capitals. 11S bases
500 works Of art in terra Gotta, 81
works of art in bronze, III intaglio
and canoes, IS marble sarcophagi, Is
has reliefs, 1872 marble statues, 81 mar
BILE figures of animals, 266 busts an,
heads, 81 pictures in polychrome-mosaic
IL objects of gold, 80 objects of silver
96,679 coins Even this astonishing lis
does not cover every thing, but EN- brace