FOOD 



Ox or man power are still commonly used to till the 

 fields In the mountains of Central America. Sloping 

 fields are difficult or impossible to work with tractors. 

 In addition, tractors and other imported farm equip- 

 ment are often so relatively expensive that they can- 

 not be used. (Photographs by the author.) 



Central America 



Louis 0. Williams 

 Chief Curator of Botany 



A olitically, Central America includes five republics: 

 Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa 

 Rica. These countries are just about as diverse as the great- 

 er region, stretching from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in 

 Mexico to the Isthmus of Panama, that comprises biological 

 Central America. Within the latter bounds flourish nearly 

 all the types of vegetation to be found in the tropics of our 

 hemisphere, except that characteristic of the high snow 

 mountains. 



The problem of producing sufficient food to support the 

 population of any biological area involves the following prin- 

 cipal considerations: 



1. Man and his relation to the area: where he can 

 live and progress; his increase in numbers. 



2. The characteristic agriculture, soils, and climate. 



3. The plants available as food, and what can be 

 done with them. 



My remarks will apply these considerations to the problem 

 of food for Central America. 



X here are fairly good reasons to believe that man reached 

 Central America perhaps as long as 10,000 years ago. How 

 long man has been a farmer in this region is not at all cer- 

 tain, but it is my guess that rational agriculture or horti- 

 culture dates back not more than 4,000 years. 



Man came into the area from Mexico, undoubtedly mi- 

 grating down the mountain chain that extends, with only 

 one minor break, through the region from northwest to 

 southeast. He lived in the mountains because these were 

 more acceptable than the lowlands as places to live, just as 

 they are today. The mountainous area was the area of 

 greatest opportunity. 



When the population could no longer maintain itself in 

 the highlands by simple seed-gathering and hunting, then 



Page 2 OCTOBER 



agriculture must have had its beginnings. Sometime during 

 this period the common field bean was domesticated and 

 selections made from it. Native scarlet runner beans were 

 even more easily taken over; their primitive types were surely 

 much like those found in many parts of the highland region 

 today. Other plants were brought into cultivation. 



Also during this period maize came into the picture, either 

 as a local cultigen or an import from elsewhere. Thus there 

 were in the highland region two good protein food plants 

 and one excellent source of carbohydrates. The diet was 

 balanced and the stage set for one of the earliest population 

 explosions in America. These foods at the same time pro- 

 vided the base for an incipient civilization, which was to 

 become one of the most advanced in the world in its day. 



It was not long before man began to push off the highlands 

 to middle elevations. There the real explosion in his num- 

 bers took place, as well as advances in culture and civiliza- 

 tion. Cultural centers were established: notable ones at 

 Copan and Quirigua. In time, the agriculture that sup- 

 ported them began to spread farther and farther away — 

 so far, indeed, that farmers could probably come to a center 

 but once or twice a year. 



It is my feeling that grass defeated this civilization of the 

 Maya and related groups: that it was the principal cause of 

 the downfall and abandonment of their cultural centers, and 

 the causative agent that reduced the population to a fraction 

 of its former numbers. 



Forested lands may be cleared by fire, and, once cleared, 

 three to five crops can be produced one after another before 

 the soil becomes so poor that it is no longer productive. A 

 greater disaster than loss of fertility, however, is the invasion 

 of cleared lands by perennial grasses. Grass is not difficult 

 to control if man has implements of iron with which to work, 

 but it is catastrophic to the farmer who has no efficient cut- 

 ting or digging tools. 



