Pounding Rice.
The Agave ixtli, or henequen, is larger than the last species. When the plants are three years old the leaves may be cut, and a good plant should yield from fifty to a hundred leaves annually, the cutting being repeated every four months. The continuous fibres in a leaf are sometimes five and a half feet long, and are used by the natives without spinning. The life of the ixtli subjected to this pruning and not allowed to flower, may extend to ten years, but usually is several years less.
Bromelia pita produces a much finer and stronger fibre, but is not so easy to handle. As these fibres come to market they are often confounded, even by the Indios, and the term “pita” is not infrequently applied to the product of agaves, and even of plantains.
The genus Fourcroya, closely allied to agave, also yields valuable fibres.
Rice.—The upland variety grows remarkably well in the bottom-lands of the Chocon River, producing two crops a year of very heavy rice. All through the logwood country it might profitably be cultivated; but up to the present time not enough has been raised fairly to determine how much the yield per acre may be. There are no suitable rice-mills, and the grain is hulled by the rude and wasteful method of pounding in mortars.
Oranges.—The delusion which has led so many to plant orange-trees on the frost-visited sand-banks of Florida has at least turned the attention of Americans to the desirability of orange-walks not too remote from our principal fruit-markets. The Florida oranges, while sweet and juicy, are wanting in flavor, especially the mandarin variety, which is far inferior to the fruit of that variety raised in China. Even the Louisiana oranges, which are generally superior to those from Florida, are not first-rate, and in both States I have seen the foliage utterly destroyed by frost,—an accident which must seriously interfere with the succeeding crop. As a substitute for these unsuitable regions, Guatemala offers great advantages. At Teleman, on the Polochic, the quality of the uncultivated fruit is nearly equal to the Syrian oranges; that is, finer than any I have seen in Jamaica or the West Indies generally,—and the same fruit can be raised on all the bottom-lands of the Atlantic coast. Lemons do not do so well, as this fruit requires a cooler climate and must be relegated to the higher interior valleys; but limes grow wild in remarkable perfection, being often used as hedge-plants. Raised from seed, the plants at three years are six feet high, and in five are bearing. On the western side limas, or sweet lemons, citrons, and toranjas, or shaddocks, grow very well. Oranges of many varieties can be grown in the greatest perfection in the rich valleys; and yet it is difficult to obtain oranges enough for home consumption even where the alcaldes are not so stupid as one reported during the cholera scare in 1884, who ordered all the orange-trees in his village to be cut down, as their fruit was sure to cause cholera! Along the coast of Honduras, near Trujillo, I have bought for one dollar a barrel the finest limes I ever saw.
Coconuts.—On the sandy shores, where no other fruit will grow, the coconut flourishes. As a rule the nuts are not so large as those of the Pacific Islands; but I have seen some of good size on the north shore of the Island of Roatan. The low, sandy cayos and the equally low shores of Manabique are admirably suited for coconut-walks. In one place on the Hondureñan coast a large factory was established at great cost, but for some reason not known to the writer it has been abandoned; and now, nowhere on the northern coast of Guatemala is any organized attempt to prepare either the oil or fibre (coir or cobre), and the nuts are shipped to the United States or to England. Prolific bearers, these palms require no care after they come into bearing in the fourth year; and as they bear heavily by the seventh year, a young walk soon becomes a source of profit. Usually a tree produces a flower-spathe every month; so there are generally on a tree nuts in all stages. On a single spadix I have counted five thousand nine hundred and fifty staminate or male blossoms, and fifty-two pistillate or female. Of the latter not more than thirty, and usually only twenty, develop into nuts; but a young tree in a good soil will probably bear three hundred and sixty nuts per annum, worth $9. In a walk, however, it is a good tree that is worth $3 per annum.
The trade in green nuts is of course limited; but they usually sell at the rate of two cents apiece. No more delicious drink is found in the tropical fruits than the rich milk of the nut when so green that the shell is easily cut with a knife. When fully ripe, the nuts may be piled in a damp place and left to germinate. The milk disappears, and its place is occupied by a porous mass completely filling the cavity and of the consistency of sponge-cake, quite edible withal. As the shoot pushes through the eye and breaks through the thick husk, the innocent-looking sponge seems to absorb the meat of the coconut; when this is finished, the plant has, as it were, hatched itself from the old shell, and is ready to continue life on its own basis. The coconut presents a good illustration of the development of pinnate or feather leaves from palmate (or leaves shaped like a fan),—all the early leaves of this palm being of the latter class, while the noble leaves of the mature palm are long pinnate.
Growth of a Young Coconut.