Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 July 1913 — Plant of Many Uses. [ARTICLE]

Plant of Many Uses.

In 1830 the congress of Mexico issued an order that none of the state documents should be Indicted upon any material other than the paper made from maguey. This is the national plant and some have Insisted that the very word Mexico was derived from the word mex-til, which means maguey. The Mexicans do well to be grateful to this product of their country, says the Ave Marla, for it is food and drink, house and raiment to the Mexican. Its other name Is agave, or century plant, from the popular fallacy that It blooms only once a century, whereas It really blossoms every eight years. The stalk of the blossoms reaches to the height of 25 feet and looks like a giant candlestick, for It carries often as many as several thousand blooms. Many fields of maguey miles In length are to be found In Mexico, and there Is scarcely a bit of the plant which cannot be used In some manner.