Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-07-24
THE AMERICAN ALOE.
Many Uses of the Century Plant ot
 Southwestern Deserts.
Supplies MeIfcans with Food, Drink, Clothing, Medicine, seap, Need les, Ets.-soms of Fss Pc
 eulfa rftfes.

The century plant, which grows wild in the desert soil of our south western states and territories, is not the delicate thing so carefully tend ed in the northern conservatory, but . growth of splendid proportions and one of the most useful in the vege- table kingdom. In its native state it natures in eight or ten years, but when it is cultivated as an exotic the blooming is delayed indefinitely. This gives rise to the belief that it takes it 100 years to reach perfec- tion.
 It is also called the American aloe, Agave Americana, maguey and meg cal plant. It was incorrectly classed by some of the early botanists with the aloe, and Ennaeus first called it agave from a Greek word meaning something grand and admirable. It is the oldest known of about 100 spe- cies of the genus agave, all natives of our continent, says the Detroit Free Press.
 Maguey is the name most applied to it in South America, and in Mex ico, where it is called the mezcal, large tracts of land are devoted to its propagation. Being a desert plant it requires little care and the soil could hardly be put to a more profitable use. It supplies the peo- pie food, drink, clothing, shelter, medicine, soap, needles, thread and many other things. Its thick, pulpy, spine-tipped leaves grow to the length of five or six feet, and without & stem. They are cut in slices and fed to the cattle or roasted by the Mexicans for their own eating.
 From the fibers the Aztecs made , paper on which they did their famous picture writing, while from the same source we got pits fax, ropes and hsmmocks. Its roots furnish a soap called amole; from the center of the flower stalk is obtained a substitute for the hone or razor strop; its spongy portion is used in place of cork and the dried flower stems - make 8 rain-proof matching. Ger tain people believe the juice to be an antidote for rattlesnake poison. The spines are used as needles, while it is said the Aztecs introduced their cruel points into the skin a. @ mode of punishment.
 Year after year the plant stores away it's juices for the support of its flowers. When it is ready for the final effort of its life there rises from the center of the great cluster of leaves a long shaft which divides and subdivides, near the top. into numer- ous flower branches until it resem- bles huge candelsbrum. The rapid ity with which this plant grows is hardly credible. It increases several inches in a day; and when it reaches a height of about 70 feet and bear. 4,0OO perfectly-formed blossoms of creamy white, it is truly one of ns- lures marvels.
 At whatever period this occurs it is not repeated. After the petals fall and the great seed pods drop their contents on the sand the long leaves droop and the plant withers to the ground. The roots may live to send up new sprouts, but the old plant has had its day.
 The Agava Americana is perhaps best known to the outside world by the liquors that are made from its juices. When the first signs of the flower stalk appear. the delicate shoot is plucked and its base scooped out. leaving a hollow place in which the sweet sap collects. A large plant will yield several quarts e day. or upward of 200 gallons during a sea- son. The juice is diluted with wa ter, then allowed to ferment- for sev- eral days, when it somewhat resem- hes buttermilk in color and flavor. This is pulque, the national beverage of the Mexicans, and from it is die titled the famous mezcal.
 Large numbers of the century plant are cut yearly from the hill sides of southern Arizona, to be con verted into this drink in the Mex ican distilleries just across the bor- der. In spite of the line riders, it is smuggied back into our country and sold.
 Unlike pulque, mezcal is a clear, white, fiery liquor, and in this state it is not scorned by the white men. It has been we'll described as "a ter rife whisky which drives those who drink 1t to sheer madness"