Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/91

Rh to eight thousand leaves to make a bale weighing four hundred pounds.

When arrived at sufficient size, the leaves are cut, commencing at the bottom, and from the field are carried to the "scraping machine," which consists of a large fly-wheel, with strong, blunt knives, transversely attached to its periphery. Against these knives, carried around on the rapidly revolving wheel, the leaves are pressed, one by one, by means of a curved lever, in such a way that the pulpy portion is scraped off, leaving the fibre. The men (always Indians) feed the machine with astonishing rapidity, thrusting in first one end of the leaf, and then the other, and pressing it between the knives and lever by a motion of the leg. Among the poor people the leaves are scraped by hand; and these poor laborers work mostly at night, from evening until morning, because the heat of day causes the juice to ferment, and irritates the hands, while it also spoils the fibre. Four men are required to attend each machine, including those who bring the bundles of leaves and carry away the refuse pulp.

A good scraper will produce a bale of dried fibre per day, which comes from the machines in long strips, looking like green corn-silk, and is laid in bundles, then carried into the drying yard and hung over light poles placed on a framework about three feet from the ground. It soon dries, in a hot day in three or four hours, when it loses its greenish hue and appears white and glossy; it is then baled by means of hydraulic presses, each bale holding from 350 to 450 pounds. As must be apparent from a consideration of the ease with which this henequen is raised, from the fact that the plants can be obtained wild at little expense, and from another important fact, that little care is necessary for the plant after it once begins to yield, here is a culture that promises great returns for little outlay. Land is cheap, and, when it can be obtained at all, is bought by the square league. The principal cost is in clearing it, and for machinery; after that succeed only the ordinary expenses of carrying on a farm;—a farm where there is no laborious course of preparation each year for the planting of seed, no fatiguing hoeing of crops, no long season of winter to provide for; only