CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE He 
practice than in most of the Highlands (not even ex- 
cepting the Lake shores). More different crops will 
grow with greater luxuriance and rapidity in the 
warmer, more humid climate, and richer soils. Hence 
we see at such a Lowland colony as San Pedro 
Cutzan small separate patches of pineapple, especially 
white ‘‘coco” (sometimes interspersed with maguey), 
squash, chile (Santo Domingo, verde, and chiltepe), 
beans, sugarcane, gilisquil (in enclosures), tomatoes, 
rice, manioc, besides the groves of cacao and coffee 
(the two sometimes interspersed). There are also 
bananas, mixed clusters of such trees as breadfruit, 
achiote, corozo, and other minor plants. The 
Pedranos in their Lake village often mix maize and 
other plants, native and exotic, annual and perennial, 
to an extraordinary degree. One milpa which I ex- 
amined near the Lake, just southeast of San Pedro, 
contained some squash and maguey interspersed with 
maize, and near it, separated by one of the many stone 
walls, a plot without maize, but rank with maguey, 
cotton, manioc, squash, milfomate, tomatoes,”* chile, 
and coffee, in addition to scattered trees of mango, 
anona, and guava. Chickpeas (garbanzos),.the chief 
money crop, are planted in separate fields. * 
In one locality in the Lowlands (San Bernardino, 
400 m. or 1,312 ft.) rice was said to be interplanted 
with maize, both crops being planted with the macana 
(dibble) .*° : 
NEW WORLD CROPS OTHER THAN MAIZE 
GROWN IN THE HIGHLANDS 
Several major American field crops, other than 
maize, are planted in the Highlands, above 1,500 m. 
(4,921 ft.). Outstanding among these are beans and 
cucurbits. 
BEANS 
The commonest frijoles are small, black ones 
(Phaseolus vulgaris), though some red and white 
varieties are also planted. Asa rule, beans are much 
more commonly planted in special fields than they 
are mixed in with the milpa. The three major bean 
centers of the Lake region are San Andrés Semetebaj, 
Santiago, and San Pedro, with Santa Catarina and 
San Antonio also of importance. At the first locality, 
bean fields are often alternated with maize in annual 
283 These were not the regular garden tomatoes, which are carefully 
cultivated by the shore, planted each in a neat mound with a round hole 
about 15 in. (38 cm.) across, and watered from the lake by hand. (See 
pl. 20, d.) 
This was not verified by first-hand observation, but was described 
by a reliable informant. 
rotation, “to fertilize the milpa,” according to Indian 
planters. Three beans are planted to a hole, the 
“width of a hoe blade” (actually about 15 in.) apart, 
“to facilitate clearing.” These frijoles de suelo, al- 
ways superior to frijoles de mulpa, or cornfield beans, 
are planted in June and harvested in December. At 
Santiago three specific dates of planting were given: 
May 20, June 29, and August 1 to 5, with special 
significance attached to August 2 as the “eighth after 
the day of Santiago” (July 25). Preparation of the 
soil consists in clearing weeds and trenching; the 
growing season is 3 or 4 months. At San Pedro 
planting is mostly done in May, with the harvest in 
August, so as to make way for garbanzos, the main 
money crop, which is planted a week after beans are 
out and is harvested from January to March. 
Ejotes (string beans) are gathered in some mea- 
sure, but by far the major part of the bean harvest 
comes after the seeds are well dried in the field. Good 
quality frijoles de suelo are mainly limited to eleva- 
tions between about 1,500 and 1,900 m. (4,921 and 
6,234 ft.) ; they are virtually lacking in such a high 
region as the Quezaltenango-Totonicapan Valley 
(2,250-2,400 m. or 7,382-7,874 ft.), and even Solola 
(2,150 m. or 7,054 ft). Though planted on the 
Coastal Plain, as low as 300 m. (984 ft.), they are 
of inferior grade in the Lowlands. It is for this 
reason that beans from around the Lake are at a 
premium, and go in trade both to Highlands and 
Lowlands, bringing a better price than local products. 
CUCURBITS 
Squashes.— (See pp. —.) 
Giiisquiles, or vegetable pears.—As a rule, al- 
most all parts of the gilisquil are eaten—fruit, greens, 
and root (echintal). From San Andrés Semetebaj 
entire cargoes of echintal are taken to Chicacao and 
other Lowland markets. The light-green fruit (pl. 
14, d) appeared in greatest relative abundance and 
variety (large spiny, and egg-size, smooth)*° at San 
Andrés Semetebaj, as did the root; greens seemed 
to be sold on a particularly large scale at Santiago. 
Gitisquiles, which have a wide elevation range, are 
ordinarily planted in small enclosures, usually about 
2 by 2 feet (60 by 60 cm.) square and 3 feet (91 cm.) 
deep and made of sticks or canes (pl. 22, d). The 
plants are cultivated in abundance up to about 2,200 
m. (7,218 ft.), above which elevation they are less 
20 According to Bukasov (1930), ‘‘smooth chayotes without prickles 
are found very rarely . . . In Vera Paz a chayote with exceedingly 
small fruits, the size of a chicken egg, is depicted (primitive form).” 
