This area, near Lake Yojoa in central Honduras, shows the effects of 

 primitive "milpa agriculture" practices on the forests. 



Lake Yojoa in central Honduras is a gem in the midst 

 of a lush tropical setting. The broad-leaf forests are as 

 beautiful as any on the continent. If one wishes to culti- 

 vate this area lack of moisture is no problem for the rainy 

 season is about eleven months long and during the short 

 "dry" season rains may be frequent. The lands adjacent 

 to the lake are relatively level and I suspect that perhaps 

 a millenium ago the Maya cleared and planted here. Their 

 descendants practice agriculture there today perhaps much 

 as it was done then. 



A kind of agriculture described as "milpa agriculture" 

 is traditional. To be successful it requires vast amoimts of 

 land in comparison to the population living from that land. 

 A bit of forest is cleared by fire, and the ax is also used now 

 (that tool was unknown until after the Spanish conquest). 

 The crop is planted among stumps and logs by making a 

 hole in the fire-softened soil with a sharpened planting 

 stick and dropping in a few seeds. The stumps and logs 

 may be a nuisance but relative to the labor of removing 

 them they are not. Harvest is done by hand and machinery 

 was and still is mostly unknown or not used. 



-\ field, like that at Lake Yojoa shown in the photo- 

 graph may be planted with three or four crops during a 

 year, one after another. The cleared and unfertilized land 

 under this regime is depleted rapidly and in the course of 

 perhaps three years the crops become so poor that the land 

 is abandoned and a new clearing is made, the process 

 started over again. The old piece of land is let go back to 

 forest for a varying number of years. The resting period 

 always becomes shorter as population pressures increase 

 and demand for food increases. Consequently the lands 

 with shortened rest periods are able to produce less on each 

 new clearing or rotation. 



The drier highlands and often the Pacific lowlands of 

 Mexico and Central America, where the rainy season may 

 be less, often much less, than six months long and alternating 

 with a relatively harsh dry season the situation is very 

 different and subsistence agriculture, also of the "milpa" 

 type, along with grazing by excessive numbers of animals 



Page 6 JULY 



has degraded much of these highlands for generations to 

 come. The pressure to produce foods is so great that culti- 

 vation is carried out even when it is doubtful if the results 

 warrant the time and labor involved. 



The highlands of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and 

 a part of Nicaragua are covered with what would seem to 

 be endless forests of "Honduras pine," Pinus oocarpa. It 

 is an excellent timber tree and a rapidly growing one. It 

 grows on lands mostly unsuited to subsistence agriculture 

 but on lands where cattle grazing can be practiced. Never- 

 theless, in times past and even now great areas of the pine 

 is cut or burned to clear the land. Perhaps even today more 

 is burned to clear land than is made into lumber. This 

 pine is a renewable natural resource par excellence, and cer- 

 tainly rational use of Honduras pine would provide lumber 

 to Central America and perhaps to much of the Caribbean 

 region in perpetuity. 



The photograph shows a new stand of "Honduran Pine" 

 only six years after clear cutting of the pine forest. The 

 "park-like" aspect of the forest indicates relatively heavy 

 grazing. The control of grasses and herbs by grazing re- 

 duces the fire hazard to the young pines. Mature trees 

 will come from this forest in 30-40 years. 



At the invitation of the Mexican government about 

 25 years ago, the Rockefeller Foundation began an ex- 

 tensive research project into the potential of increasing the 

 production of food plants used in the underdeveloped re- 

 gions of the tropics. The plants involved were maize and 

 wheat. The project, now sponsored by both the Rocke- 

 feller and the Ford Foundations, has been extended to 

 other food crops important in the tropics and enlarged to 

 cover other underdeveloped regions of the world. 



While the increase in food production is only one of the 

 problems of the underdeveloped regions of our continent — 

 population control is perhaps the second in importance — 

 I suspect that the "revolution" in tropical agriculture ini- 

 tiated by Rockefeller Foundation will prove to be the most 

 important development in food production since the devel- 

 opment of maize culture in America and that of rice and 

 wheat in the Old World. 



Valuable "Honduran Pine" forest areas are suitable for grazing but 

 generally poor for crops, though many are destroyed for crops. 



