FIBER PLANTS OF MEXICO. REPORT BY CONSUL-GENERAL SUTTON, OF MATAMOROS. One of the most important factors of Mexican prosperity is the increasing of the natural products for export. The annual output of silver is, of course, the greatest, but this does not afford so certain a guarantee of steady prosperity as the increase in certain other products. Of these the fiber plants, henequen, ixtle, &c., are the most important. For the year ending June 30, 1873, the export of silver dollars was $22,626,064; henequen, $809,919; ixtle, $240,117. In 1883 these exports were: Silver dollars, $22,969,584; henequen, $3,311,062; ixtle, $596,532. Of the silver about 75 per cent. goes out at Vera Cruz. The henequen, which has increased some 400 per cent. in the period from 1873 to 1883, goes out almost entirely at Progreso. The ixtle, which has increased 250 per cent. in the same time, goes out mostly at Tampico. For convenience, I present the following tables, showing the exports. of these fibers for the years mentioned. The values are stated in Mexican coin, which has now a declared value of 87 cents on the United States dollar. Exports of fiber plants for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1873, 1874, 1882, and 1883. FROM WHAT CUSTOM-HOUSES EXPORTED. (Values given in Mexican dollars, one Mexican $ 1873. = 87 cents American.) First half year 1884: Henequen, $1,979,505; ixtle, $199,440; total, $2,178,945. The henequen given in the above tables may be classed as hammocks, rope, and crude fiber. The total exports for 1873 were $809,919; of this amount $8,000 was hammocks, $7,000 of which went to the United States. The rope was $211,000, of which Spain took $209,000. Of the $590,000 of cruder fiber, $524,000 went to the United States, Spain took $31,000, England $24,000, and France the rest. Speaking generally, this proportion was maintained in the following years: Taking the year ending June 30, 1883, the total exports were $3,311,062. Of this amount $90,860 were hammocks, $90,185 of which went to the United States. The rope amounted to $146,000, $141,000 going to Spain. The crude fiber was $3,073,000, the United States taking $2,582,000, England $340,000, Germany $69,000, France $50,000, and Spain the remainder. The ixtle is substantially all rope and crude fiber. I am not able to -class this for the first years. Of the total exports, $240,000 for the year 1873, Great Britain took $120,000, United States $95,000, and France -$23,000. For the year 1883 the total exports of $596,000 was made up of crude fiber $593,000, and $3,000 rope. The former went-$213,000 to England, $180,000 to Germany, $176,000 to the United States, and the remainder to France. The rope went to the United States. I am unable to give the quantities of henequen and ixtle exported in previous years. HENEQUEN. In 1882 the exports amounted to 26,182,071 kilograms, or 57,600,556 pounds. Of this amount 24,925,637 kilograms was crude fiber, nearly all of which went from Progreso. The export value of this crude fiber averaged for the year about 43 cents per pound. In 1883 the exports were 66,152,700 pounds. Of this amount 28,763,307 kilograms was crude fiber, nearly all from Progreso. The export value of this crude fiber averaged for the year 44 cents per pound, the same as in the previous year. In the first year the United States took 84 per cent. and the last year 78 per cent. of all the exports of henequen. The import duty in the United States is $25 per ton. Under the provisions of the new treaty with Mexico this fiber will be free of duty. IXTLE. In 1882 the exports amounted to 4,748,949 kilograms, or 10,477,754 pounds. Of this amount 4,744,995 kilograms was crude fiber. Tampico exported 3,571,601 kilograms; Matamoros, 636,571 kilograms; Vera Cruz, 313,144 kilograms; Nuevo Laredo, 214,639 kilograms. The export value averages about 5 cents per pound. In 1883 the exports were 5,183,024 kilograms, or 11,402,653 pounds. Of this, 5,142,172 kilograms was crude fiber. Tampico exported 4,441,465 kilograms; Matamoros, 301,577 kilograms; Nuevo Laredo, 202,915 kilograms; and Vera Cruz, 194,936 kilograms. The export price averages about 54 cents per pound. Ixtle was formerly free of duty in the United States. Under the new tariff of March 3, 1883, it was thought that ixtle would be rated at $15 per ton, and importers have paid duties at that rate, but a recent decision of the Treasury Department classes it as a dried fiber and free of duty. It is also placed on the free list in the proposed treaty with Mexico. Henequen is the most important so far of these fiber plants, and the exports bid fair to steadily increase. The ixtle is of two kinds, maguey and lechuguilla. Beside these there are the pita, or Spanish dagger, the nopal, a species of cactus, and a great number of plants and grasses which are likely to be found of great value. A considerable portion of Northern Mexico is covered with the cactus, which ought to be valuable for paper material. Without having exact information, it is my opinion that these fiber plants will amply repay an extended inspection to find out their fitness for certain uses. One of the most serious obstacles has been the difficulty of preparing ixtle and other fibers. All, or nearly all, the work has been done by hand. Within the last few years inventors have been occupied in devising some machine which would do this work. Various persons have taken out patents for different machines, the success of which has not been fully shown. I have spoken of the great number of these fiber plants and grasses which are found in Mexico. The present supply is almost unlimited, and if profitable they could be easily cultivated. Under present climatic conditions large tracts of land in Mexico are valueless for anything but such fiber plants. The demand for such products, already very large, is one that will steadily increase. The United States imported $16,500,000 worth of such products during the year ending June 30, 1882, of which nearly $11,000,000 was of the raw products. Mexico furnished more than $2,100,000. The raw products cannot be produced in the United States, and as a result our manufacturers will continue to import largely to work up to supply our markets and for export. Nowhere else can the crude material be found in such quantities and so cheaply as in Mexico. It will pay them to look into the capabilities of the various natural fibers of this country and make them useful. By the proposed treaty henequen and ixtle will be free of duty, and this will greatly increase the profits of handling. To show more fully the amount and value of the imports of such products I give the following table, showing the imports into the United States for the year ending June 30, 1882: Imports into United States for the year ending June 30, 1882. Imports into United States for the year ending June 30, 1882-Continued. The following article from the Mexican Financier will give additional information and show that the importance of the subject is attracting attention in Mexico. It is the belief of many well-informed men here in Mexico and in the United States that no natural product of the country will so well repay attention and industry as her fiber plants. Of these plants she possesses an almost unlimited supply-though at present limited by the crude and slow methods of treatment prevailing-while throughout the globe an unfailing and almost unlimited demand exists. We say unfailing because the great land products-the wheat, corn, and cotton-must be moved. Monetary depression, panics or wars may interfere to prevent the growth or the carrying on of other industries, but the nations of the world must be fed and clothed. By the use of fiber-made articles-bags and bagging, twine and cordage-these immense land products are packed and prepared for transportation. Ages of test and experiment have proved that the use of these articles provides the cheapest and best modes for so doing. In the United States alone 5,000,000 fiber-made sacks are used each year for handling cotton seed, cake, and meal. The largest market in the world for fibers and fibrous products exists in the United States, Mexico's next door neighbor. Besides the products of cotton, enormous quantities of fibrous material are utilized in the handling of the cotton crop itself. Immense quantities of jute are used in handling the grain crop and its products. Fiber in the shape of twine is used in enormous amounts in harvesting the grain crop of the United States. Besides being a larger consumer of fiber in these forms than all the rest of the world, the United States is the largest consumer of fiber in miscellaneous fabrics, employing it in a greater variety of uses than all other countries together. Thus, at the doors of this country, there stands the readiest of purchasers. The value of henequen exported from this republic in the five years, from 1877 to 1882, amounted to $1,649,850.88, or a yearly average of $330,000, approximately. The export of the same article in the single year 1883 increased to $3,311,062, or more than tenfold. The increase for 1884 will be proportionate. Henequen fiber thus assumes the the first place, after the precious metals, on our export list, with the maguey, ixtle, pita, and other fiber-leafed plants. That this production and export may closely approach, or fully reach the very first place, dethroning the precious metals, seems by no means an extravagant opinion when the facts upon which it is based are considered. Henequen, ixtle and sisal grass now pay an import duty in the United States of $15 a ton, and India hemp, India manila and other like substitutes for hemp, $25 a ton. Under the reciprocity treaty between this country and the United States, Mexican fibers are admitted free of duty. In consequence the heavy duty on manila hemp, India jute, &c., must cause a displacement of those articles in favor of our Mexican fibers, just as Mexican henequen has for general use, as well as for harvesting, already in the manufacture of twines displaced or superseded manila hemp, the fiber of the plantain of the Philippine Islands. An India-jute grain sack weighs from 3 to 34 pounds, and costs in New York about 25 cents. A Mexican maguey grain sack of equal capacity weighs but 2 pounds, and costing not 20 cents, fully replaces it. The maguey is both stronger and lighter, and, even apart from the item of tariff, is cheaper than the jute, and in the manufacture of cotton bagging, cotton-seed bags, and ore sacks it must continue its work, already so well begun, of displacing the foreign fiber. The maguey will always be cultivated in Mexico extensively, if for nothing more than its products of pulque, mescal, and tequila, and the extent of its present cultivation may be imagined when we consider the thousands of gallons of pulque, the fermented sap of the maguey, which are daily consumed in the City of Mexico alone. There are single haciendas almost wholly devoted to the cultivation of the maguey for pulque, some of the largest fortunes in the country have come from production of pulque, and the value of the pulque produced on some of these haciendas amounts to over $100,000 a year. The plants, after the pulque has been extracted, die, and the fiber has been comparatively little utilized on account of the lack of adequate means to manipulate it. But with the mechanical devices now available for that purpose this can be easily and profitably done, and the fiber products of the maguey will add immensely to the value of the crop, standing in a similar relation to the regular products as that of cotton seed, formerly a waste product, to the regular cotton crop. Ixtle is another important fiber whose export is growing. The value of the exports in 1883 amounted to $596,533.23. It was consumed principally in the manufacture of brushes of all kinds, both in Europe and the United States, and a smaller portion especially selected was spun into thread. It has been demonstrated that jute, which is now one of the greatest staples of India, can be grown with great ease and abundance throughout the hot lands of the coast. In recent years all exports of flour from the United States have been made in sacks of India jute. These sacks are seamless, made on looms constructed for the purpose, and the number used annually is enormous. The history of jute shows what may be expected from Mexican fibers. The increase of its production has been enormous. Its use in manufactures was not begun until 1823. This was in Dundee, Scotland, where the industry now employs over 30,000 people in more than 100 mills. India derives over $100,000,000 a year from its jute culture. The production amounts to 2,500,000 bales a year. The demand increases so that the price is steadily advancing, although the advance has been confined chiefly to the better grades. India produces a great amount of very inferior grades, not equal to the demands of the manufacturers, owing to the unintelligent cultivation and manipulation practiced there. It is here that Mexico's opportunity comes in, for by the aid of machinery the fiber can be extracted in first-class condition and bring correspondingly high prices. Government aid has been promised to efforts for the introduction of jute culture in this country, and the reciprocity treaty will give the Mexican product the advantage of free importation into the United States against a duty of 20 per cent. on the valuation charged on India jute. The purposes for which jute is used are rapidly multiplying. Besides coarse fabrics, such as grain and ore sacks, it is used for fine goods like cambrics, furniture linings, and room hangings. By recent improvements in dyeing the |