cook: size of MAYA FARMS II 



With respect to the many true-breeding abnormal forms, 

 Weatherwax admits that a single ancestral type combining all 

 of these cannot be visualized, but with this evidence he is still 

 loath to accept an additional ancestor. The statement "that 

 many of the tetratological conditions that do not fit into the 

 foregoing theory (simple evolution) as reversions are not in- 

 herited" can hardly be passed unchallenged without an enumera- 

 tion. Practically all maize breeders are familiar with many 

 true-breeding tetratological forms which cannot be looked upon 

 as reversions to a single ancestral line. 



It is difficult to understand why the fundamental differences 

 between Zea and other members of the Maydeae should be 

 overlooked and a theory adopted whose chief support hes in the 

 fact that teosinte and Tripsacum share with maize the rudiments 

 of perfect flowers. It scarcely needs argument to prove that all 

 are descended from perfect-flowered ancestors. The suppression 

 of sex organs is a universal attribute of any unisexual organism 

 and as a basis for proving relationship is equal in ever>" respect 

 to the observation of Weatherwax, "that common to all three 

 genera (Zea, Euchlaena, and Tripsacum) is the jointed vegetative 

 stem." 



AGRICULTURE.— ^/^<? size of Maya farms. O. F. Cook, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry. 



Among many parallel features of the ancient civilizations of 

 Peru and Mexico were the methods of producing and distributing 

 the supplies of food. Each householder had an assignment of 

 land to produce food for the family. An area sufficient for a 

 man and his wife was known in Peru as a topo, tupu, or topu. 

 Another topo was granted for each boy and half a topo for each 

 girl, perhaps because more feasts and ceremonies were required 

 in raising boys. In addition to the fields assigned to families, 

 the people of each community were charged with the cultivation 

 of lands set aside for the support of the priests and for other public 

 purposes. A national system of storehouses was maintained 

 by the Inca government as a protection against distress from 

 crop failures or other local disasters. 



