cook: size of maya farms 13 



amounts to 160,000 square feet, the other to 103,680 square 

 feet, in our system corresponding to 3.67 acres and 2.38 acres, 

 respectively. It could not be expected that all of the lands 

 would produce equally, and the report may relate to different 

 districts where the sticks used in measuring the fields were not 

 of the same length. 



The word kaati, defined by Brinton as an area, seems to have 

 been the name of the stick or cord used in measuring, but since 

 each kaan of length would represent one-twentieth of the hun 

 uinic unit, the kaan might serve also as a measure of area. Using 

 a 20-foot stick, 20 kaan in length would amount to 400 feet, 

 and the kaan area to 8000 square feet. Reducing the stick to 

 16 feet would restrict the kaan as an area to 5120 square feet, 

 nearly equivalent to Brinton's kaan of 5184 square feet, or 

 square of 24 yards. In eastern Guatemala canquib or kankib 

 is the native name of small, slender palms of the genus Chamae- 

 dorea, with smooth, long- jointed trunks less than half an inch in 

 diameter, ideally adapted for measuring-rods. The usual mean- 

 ing of can is "yellow," while quit is a general name for small 

 reed-like palms. 



The harvest of forty-man-loads of maize from the Maya farms 

 in Yucatan might be estimated roughly at about 80 bushels, 

 not a large yield for two or three acres, but maize is seldom very 

 productive in tropical countries of low elevation. At altitudes 

 of 9,000 to 11,000 feet in the Cuzco district of Peru a topo of 

 maize, equivalent to about seven- tenths of an acre, is expected 

 to yield 8 to 10 fanegas of 260 pounds each, corresponding roughly 

 to 42 and 52 bushels per topo, or from 60 to 75 bushels per acre. 

 The topo is reckoned now at 4,000 square varas, equivalent to 

 30,820 square feet, but may have been larger in ancient times. 

 That the family requirement of maize under the Inca system 

 should have been smaller than among the Mayas could be ex- 

 plained by more extensive use of other foods, as potatoes, ocas, 

 ullucus, and quinoa, in the Peruvian tablelands. 



The ancient agricultural system of the Pima Indians of Arizona 

 provided a farm unit of 100 steps "of the same foot," as stated 

 by Russell, used in dividing the cultivated lands among those 



