I87r..] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



135 



thf niDst imiiortaiit, oxci'cdin?; tlie wheat crop 

 in iiuautity al least in tlie itiniinrtiim of four 

 to one. It furnislies tlie inlialiilants witli 

 tluir |)rineilial arlit'leof food and is almost the 

 only K'ii'ii f''il to liorses. Made U|) into tor- 

 tillas, it is present at every meal, aiid even a 

 local failure of the eroj) entads no little ineon- 

 veidence and ol'ttinies much distress ; linppily 

 however, this is rarely the ease, and j^enerally 

 it is both atiundant and cheap; in ordinary 

 yeura the price in Kl Paso was from #J to $:{ 

 per fanefj;a of "ii bushels; in the ai;ricultural 

 towns of the interior, remote from a market, 

 the price runs from fifty cents up to a dollar. 

 1 omitted to say further back that wheat is 

 worth about one-third more than corn, and 

 subject to ^'"I'iitcr lluctuations in i)rice. 



'T'he land f(n- corn is jirepared nnich like 

 that for wheat ; when ready, the corn is 

 dropped into hills and covered with the hoe ; 

 it is irrigated at intervals, as its condition 

 seems to re(piire or as the water supply will 

 admit. It is also worked between the rows 

 once or twice, but never more than one way, 

 the lields never bein^ chec(piered. The cus- 

 tom is to plant too thick, to put too many 

 grains into each hill, and as there is besides a 

 great tendency to develoiV an aliundant crop 

 of suckers, which are never removed, the field 

 is apt to be too choked for the growth of very 

 heavy crops. When, however, the season 

 proves favorable, these drawbacks are over- 

 come and the crop astonishing. I am unable 

 to give the busliels raised on an acre, as I 

 never knew of any measurements either of 

 ground or corn being made with this end. 

 The corn seems to ripen somewhat unequally, 

 some early and some late. New laud, if not too 

 Wet, produces most abundantly. The saline 

 and alkali incrustations visible in so many 

 places on the surface of the ground prevent a 

 good crop, and although contiiuious cultiva- 

 tion overcomes this objection in a great degree, 

 land entirely free from this feature is preferred. 

 Tlie corn is husked in the Held while the 

 stalk is still standing; it is thrown together on 

 heaps and then hauled home in carts ; it can- 

 not be kept in a close room like the unthreshed 

 wheat, but necessity has invented for them a 

 corn crib called a tnija, which is well adapted 

 to their needs. They are constructed in the 

 following manner: four, six or eight tim- 

 bers, generally Initts of trees, are firmly set 

 in the ground, ;uid extending three or four 

 feet aljove it ; on these heavy logs or .string- 

 ers are laid as a foundation, and transverse- 

 ly upon these latter, thinner poles, sufli- 

 ciently close together to jircvent the ears 

 of corn from falling through ; the shape given 

 tlie tnija is either Sipiare or oblong, coniiiioiily 

 the latter ; long, thin poles are set uj) ail 

 around the outer edge, and are lifteen or 

 twenty feet high ; lirushwood is interwoven 

 from one to the other until the log and brush 

 structure is as high as necessary. In its con- 

 struction, size and shape excepted, it very 

 much resembles a galiion. Into this rude but 

 excellent crib the corn is thrown, where it re- 

 mains until otherwise disposed of. Rain sel- 

 dom falls during the fall aud winter, so the 

 grain suffers little from exposure to the 

 weather. 



For some unaccountable reason, which no 

 one was ever alile to explain to me .satisfacto- 

 rily, they husk their corn before it issnlHciently 

 mature, before the grain is well hardened, and 

 to this reason I attrilmte the fact that it cannot 

 be kept over the year without great care and 

 troulile. When left on the col) it does better; 

 but if shelled, then as soon as summer comes 

 the wecvilgetsintoit,and it becomes difficult to 

 preserve. To do so, it becomes necessary to take 

 it out into the open air, say al)nut every two 

 nionths, and winnow it a.s you do wheat; this 

 is exjiensive and laliorioiis, and it was to dimi- 

 nish both these items that I took out the fan- 

 ning mill alrciidy spokeuof. If shelled in the 

 spring and not cleaned several times during 

 the summer, it will lie found when fall 

 comes that very little of it, except the hard 

 outer shell, is left, the softer parts of the grain 

 having been entirely eaten. I never tried the 

 experiment, but it was always my belief that 



if left in the field until fully hard and ripe it 

 wouW better escape the ravages of tli<' weevil. 

 It has often been told nu; that in the States of 

 Gnadalaxara, Zacatecas and lower Mexico 

 generally, no trouble is experienced in keep- 

 ing corn two, three, or more years. There the 

 large rani-hcs have specially erei'ti'il gran- 

 aries t'or this jiurpose : tliese are built in the 

 shape of a huge sugar loaf, open only at the 

 top, where the corn, still on the cob, is thrown 

 in. When full, these storehouses are hermeti- 

 cally closed, thus preserving the corn sweet 

 and nndaniaged for years. 



Shelling tlie corn is a very tedious and labo- 

 rious oiieration. Until recently, the hum of 

 the modern corn-sheller never fell upon the 

 ears of these iiriiiiitive farmers; in its stead 

 they had the ccrandu, a c<jntrivance of home- 

 made coiLstructioii, which I will attempt to 

 describe. Four stout forked poles are set in 

 the ground, about live or six feet ai)art, and 

 about two feet above the ground; strong poles 

 are laid in these forks from one to the other, 

 makiiif; a continuous frame-work around llu' 

 toi); the green hide of an ox is then cut up 

 into strips, or ribbons, an inch or more in 

 width, which are then stretched acro.ss the 

 frame-work from .side to side, and pas.sed 

 around the poles composing it; when the whole 

 has been gone over in this way, the operation 

 is repeated in the transverse direction, thi; 

 strips being passed under and over tliose 

 already imt, or in other words they are placed 

 just as the matting is we use on our floors. 

 When the rawhide dries it shrinks somewliat, 

 and through the interstices thus opened the 

 cinn drops down. This machine is so woven as 

 to be a little baggy, and into the depression 

 the ears of corn are thrown; men take their 

 stand around it armed with heavj' wooden 

 clubs, with which they belabor the ears until 

 all the grain has been hammered off and fallen 

 through, and nothing but a mass of broken 

 cobs remains in the ceramlu. Sometimes the 

 method of making this rude corn-sheller is 

 varied ; the ox-hide is left entire, the edges 

 being cut even to admit its being adapted in 

 size and shape to the frame-work; round holes 

 are then cut into the skill, through which the 

 corn falls. 



If the farmers are careless about preserving 

 their straw, they are not so witli their corn- 

 fodder. After the corn is taken out of the 

 field, the stalks are cut down, laid in heaps, 

 and without being tied up into bundles hauled 

 home ill carts. Every farmer's hou.se has at- 

 tached to it a stable yard, in which his hor.ses 

 and mules are kept. In onecorner of this yard, 

 and sometimes in the centre of it, an elevated 

 lilatform is erected, and on lliis tdjitsUd the 

 fodder is stacked, serving not only as food for 

 the cattle, but also as a shelter during rainy 

 and inclement weather. 



Hay is never made artificially by the ^lexi- 

 can farmer. lie very ofttii sows a palth of 

 ground with that speciesof clover called (Oj'alfn, 

 better known to .seedsmen as lucerne ; but this 

 is cut and fed green, never cured and pre- 

 sencd. It is a very valuable grass, grows with 

 uncommon rai>idity, and in favorable seasons 

 canbecut asoftenashalfadozen times; if Uft 

 stand too long, the steins i;rowtliii:k and hard, 

 and cattle no longer eat it with the same avidity. 

 Gramma grass, that most valuable of all the 

 gra.ssesof thefar Westand South, is his depend- 

 ence for hay. This is not only invaluable as 

 pasture, but it has in addition the great merit 

 of curing into most excellent hay in the fall, 

 while .still standing on the ground. Should his 

 fodder give out, or he wish to jjive his stock a 

 change of food, he puts his oxen to his cart 

 and goes out five or .six miles where the ijrummu 

 is abundant, and with that, to him, most use- 

 ful of all iiii))lemints, the hoe, soon cuts off a 

 load. Making hay with a hoe must .seem to a 

 Lanca.ster conuty farmer the most absurd of 

 all absurdities. IJarley is also },'rown to a 

 limited extent for food, being sometimes fed 

 in its green state, aud sometimes the grain 

 itself. 



One of the most important productions of 

 Mexico is beans. They are the favorite 

 food of all classes and couditiom> of people, 



and to eat a meal witliout this particular dish 

 is not to be thought of. The chinch bw.; has 

 for a series of years so attacked the bean 

 crop in the Hio ("irande valley, that it is no 

 loni;er planted there. In all parts of the in- 

 terior it does finely, and from thence .supjilies 

 are drawn by the le.ss favored sections. A 

 ]>iiit of bians. boiled and then fried in lard, 

 six tortillas, and a small plate of c/uVc orj^'reen 

 pepiier, is the usual meal placed liefoie the 

 day laborer ; on it he manages to do a good 

 deal of hard work, keep in robust health, and 

 thrive generally. 



rerha|)s the greatest drawliack under which 

 the farmer laJKirs is his lack of capital, arising 

 chiefly from his thriftle.ssness and want of 

 |iroper niana);enieiit. He seldom manages to 

 lay by anylhiiip; for a rainy day ; at lea.st not 

 one in ten does. Like the planters of the 

 South in unti-bdlum days, whin harvest-time 

 comes around it finds much, if not all of his 

 crop eitlier sold (ir li\ polhecated, with barely 

 enough left to furnish him bread. l'erhapsa.s 

 many as one-half of all the farmers begin to 

 sell their prospective crop U-fore it is planted. 

 They stand in need of some neces.sary article, 

 and not having the money to buy it, sell so 

 much of their corn or wheat croji as will pur- 

 cha.se it. In this coui-se there is much risk to 

 the seller, and still more to the buyer; there 

 may be a failun^ of the crop, either partial or 

 total, when, ofcour.se, tlie farinei' cannot pay, 

 or he may be able to iiay only )iart, h-aviiig 

 the rest standing against him until the follow- 

 ing year, in which case about fifty jier cent, is 

 added to the indebtedness by way of interest ; 

 and in this way the farmer soon finds himself 

 in embarrassed circumstances. • 



This embarrassment is not, however, alto- 

 gether on tlie jiart of the i>lanler. Nearly all 

 merchants, both native and foreign, are dealers 

 in grain, and are given to this practice of ad- 

 vancing goods and money on the ungathere<l 

 crojis. Thisoften leads to sharp competition, of 

 which he is (juick to avail hini.self. He iH'gins 

 selling grain to a certain merdiant, and after 

 a while, the latter Ijelieving his customer h:is 

 sold alKjut as much as he will be able to pay, 

 the acreage jilanted and the condition of 

 the seller's crop being closely ob.served, re- 

 fu.ses to buy any more from him. In such a 

 case the farmer goes to some other dealer, and 

 the latter, believing the farnu'r's word, also 

 purchases grain from him ; and in this way 

 an un.scrupulous person may sell his crop to 

 two or three diflercnt men ; and this often 

 leads to quarrels between the rival pnrcha.s- 

 ers. It mattei-s little to the planter which of 

 them gets it, his interest in it having long be- 

 fore been realized and spent. Some dealers 

 have agents who go around at harvest-time 

 watching their doubtful customers, and to 

 have the lir.st share in the distribution of the 

 too-often sold croji. I remember a character- 

 istic instance in a neighl«n- of mine, who, in 

 coming home from a distant village, where he 

 had Ih'cii on business, hapiiened to ride by the 

 corn-field of one of his customers who had sold 

 him most of liis cro]), and who was, besides, 

 known to lie a .slippery i(i)jue that sold his 

 corn as often as he {toiild lind a ))urch;i.ser. 

 The corn w;us nearly all husked and on a large 

 pile in the field. Inhere was little time for(le- 

 iiberation ; a few lK>urs' delay iniglit be dan- 

 gerous, because other imrcha.sers of the corn 

 mifrht put in their aiipearance and carry it off. 

 So, sending the servant who accom|ianied him 

 to town, some three or four miles distant, for 

 the net'e.s.sary nmnberof bagsand teams to haul 

 home the grain, he remained and deliberately 

 mounted the corn heap, and with drawn six- 

 shooter stood guard over it for some hours un- 

 til his carts cnme. Xor was it an unneces- 

 sary ]irecaution, as the carts and servants of 

 another imrchaser meanwhile presented them- 

 .selves, but as these latter came unprei)ared 

 either to light or besiege my neighbor, he suc- 

 ceeded in holding jxis-session until his own 

 forces arrived, when he triumphantly marched 

 off with the spoils of his victory. 



The C'on.stitutioii of Mexico allows of inter- 

 state duties, and a more serious :ls well ius an- 

 noying drawback to domestic trade cauuot 



