SISAL-HEMP.
"These fields that stretch for miles in every direction between the coast and the capital," said he, "are not covered with the maguey from which pulque is made, but with henequin. Henequin belongs to the aloe family, as does the maguey, and it is from this plant that a variety of fibre like hemp is produced. When Sisal was the seaport the product took its name; it is known in commerce as sisal-hemp, though very little of it comes directly from that place at present. It grows, like the maguey, on rocks or very thin soil where nothing else can flourish, and it requires no water or but very little. Take away the henequin plant and the fibre made from it, and Yucatan would be seriously crippled in its commerce. Considerable corn is raised, but it is mostly needed for home consumption. The value of the sisal-hemp export is above three millions of dollare annually, sometimes exceeding and sometimes falling below that figure.
"Yucatan has no rivers," he continued, "and the planters depend entirely upon rains for irrigation. These are supplied by the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and if this should fail the country would soon become a desert."
The gentleman then gave some information relative to the cultivation of henequin and the preparation of the fibre which we will reserve for a later page, when the youths have had an opportunity to see the process. Fred made note of the fact that the plant was indigenous to Yucatan, and used for the production of fibre long before the advent of the whites. Its exportation in large quantities is a matter of recent times, and is steadily increasing.
Henequin is grown from shoots which are cut from the base of the old plants. Three years after the shoots are set out the plant is large enough for a first crop of leaves to be cut; the cutting goes on for twelve or fifteen years, and in the mean time new shoots are set out every year, so that a plantation is constantly being renewed. When the plant is at its full size the leaves are four or five feet long. After a plantation is fairly under way, and producing regularly, it requires very little attention.
INDIANS OF YUCATAN.