In Mexico City there is one important silk factory, which is engaged in manufacturing rebosos, the light shawls which the Mexican women of all classes wear almost universally everywhere outside the larger cities. This fac tory received strong encouragement from the Mexican government which has, for some years, been anxious to establish the silk industry on a firm basis in the republic. Two great nur series near the capital, one at Coyoacan and the other at Churubusco, began in 1907 the planting of 6,000,000 mulberry trees, from which it was proposed to send out free propagation slips to all parts of the country wherever peo ple could be induced to plant' trees and to go into the business of silk raising.
Textiles and Fibres.— There is perhaps no industry in Mexico that shows more variety in forms of manufacture than that of fibre plant products. Rope, cordage, thread, packing, carpets, rugs and practically every form into which linen, hemp, jute, ixtli, henequen and other native fibre plants and textiles are made, are manufactured in Mexico. Among the most important textile and fibre goods factories in the republic are La Aurora of Cuautitlin, near Mexico City, which has an invested capital of $1,300,000 and turns out bags and packing of all kinds; La Industrial Manufacturera Com pany, capitalized at $4,000,000 and operating six factories; the Linera de Mexico Company, capital $600,000; Santa Gertrudis Company, near Orizaba, capital $1,000,000, hands employed in normal times from 1,300 to 1,500. All over the republic, wherever the numerous fibre plants grow, which is almost everywhere, on highlands and lowlands alike, the natives carry on the manufacture of rope, cord, string, thread and coarse wrapping cloth just as their ancestors did before the Conquest. These prod ucts of the country can be found from the Rio Grande to Guatemala. Ixtli (agave rigide), a rather coarse century plant, furnishes a con siderable part of the raw material for this industry. The maguey (agave Americana), from which the native pulque is extracted, also supplies raw material for the coarser kinds of rope, cordage and sacking. Even mats and rugs are made from it. In addition to the large and very general consumption of these goods, the exports to foreign countries amounted, in 1912, to $3,792,678.
Among the other fine fibre plants of Mexico are zapupe and pita, both of which furnish long, silky, strong commercial fibre, which is rot exported because the home consumption demands more than the output. The best known, commercially, of all the fibres of Mex ico is henequen grown in Yucatan and the neighboring states of Campeche and Chiapas, and to a small extent, in other parts of the republic. From the finer fibre of this plant there are manufactured in Mexico many vari eties of woven fabric that resemble silk in appearance and softness of texture. In fact there are in Mexico numerous fibre plants that offer more or less acceptable vegetable substi tutes for silk. Since time immemorial hene quen has been manufactured, in Mexico, into rope and cordage of all kinds; but now it is exported, principally to the United States, for the making of binding twine for reapers. Though no country in the world is richer than Mexico in excellent fibre plants, yet she im ports large quantities of linens, hempen fabrics, yarns, laces, handkerchiefs, trimmings, carpets, rugs, curtains, quilts and almost every kind of goods manufactured from the various fibre products, all of which could be made at home from native-grown products at a great saving to the nation. Characteristic products are the
huge, highly-adorned, sugar-loaf, native felt sombreros and the so-called Mexican Panama and other straw and reed hats. Most of the latter are made by individuals in their homes. The natives display much taste in this work, which is another of the numerous industries of the country handed down from father to son for hundreds of years. La Abeja (The Bee), in the Federal District, near the capital, with an investment of $500,000, is the most import ant of the hat factories of the country. In Mexico, Guadalajara Puebla, Vera Cruz and Oaxaca there are from one to a score or more smaller hat factories, each of which has its own wholesale and retail store. In addition to these there are little shops that do a purely local business.
Beer, Wines and Liquors.—There is a large consumption of distilled and fermented liquors in Mexico, a very considerable percentage of which is made in the country. Within the past 10 years beer has come into favor, in the cities and larger towns, and it may be found on sale even in the smaller interior towns and villages, though there the consumption is slight. Its use is confined to the middle and upper classes almost exclusively because its price puts it be yond the use of the laboring class. There are large and well-equipped breweries in Mexico City, Oaxaca, Monterey, Puebla, Vera Cruz, Orizaba, San Luis Potosi and Tampico, while installations of lesser importance exist in sev eral of the smaller cities. In the capital there are several distilleries where whisky, brandies, cognacs and cordials of various kinds are made. In the Parras district of Coahuila and in some other parts of Mexico excellent wines are produced, and wherever sugar is grown, which is pretty general in the low, hot lands of the coast country, aguardiente (native rum) and excellent alcohol are manufactured. Many of the sugar plantations possess the most modern plants for making these products. Mitch of the Mexican aguardiente is shipped to Europe where it is turned into cognac. Tequila, a strong alcoholic liquor somewhat like Holland gin, is manufactured extensively in Mexico, but most of the output is consumed at home, for its use is general throughout the country. Like pulque, tequila is manufactured from the century plant. The use of pulque is more ex tensive than that of either tequila or aguar diente; but it is confined to the upland plateaux and the country at an elevation of 4,000 feet or more, because there grows the maguey from which it is manufactured. On the uplands it has been, for many years, the greatest of the industries of the country, after mining, millions of acres being devoted to the growing of the maguey. Another distilled product called mes cal is made from another and smaller species of the agave; and it is extensively used in the region where this latter plant thrives.