30 © INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY—PUBLICATION NO. 4 
Cane grown by Indians is often sold in its raw 
state. In the Lake region, Santa Cruz and Tzununa 
especially grow cane along the alluvial flats, and sell 
sections of it in neighboring markets, especially that 
of Solola. Sugar was formerly produced on a com- 
mercial scale on Lake Atitlan, at the finca Jaibal, 
situated on the east side of the Rio Quixcap delta 
(map 20; pl. 45, f). The big flood of October 1881, 
however, wiped it all out, including three large 
mills.* 
Melons.—Various watermelons are cultivated on 
the Coastal Plain. There were two types of seed at 
Santo Domingo Suchitepequez, one red and one 
black, that were said to be “native,” in careful con- 
tradistinction to a “North American” (U. S.) 
yellowish-colored one. That all may be Old World 
is implied by’ the fact that they are called indis- 
criminately sandia (Citrullus vulgaris). A canta- 
loup (melén, Cucumis melo) is grown also along 
the Coastal Plain but in small quantity.*? 
These fruits are fairly abundant in Lowland 
markets, as at Mazatenango, but apparently they 
do not appear in the Highlands. 
Melons of good quality in the outer Lowlands 
were described during the 16th century. That these 
may have been thought of as native is implied by 
the mention, in the same sentence, of other crops 
that were definitely pre-Columbian, such as sweet- 
potatoes (camotes or vatatas), manioc (yuca), beans 
(frisoles), and squashes (calavazas or ayotes, which 
were “very nourishing’) ; then the writer speaks of 
calavazas de Espaiia in some places, and certain 
other Spanish plants grown “as curiosities” (Anon., 
Ms}, 1579; p. 18). 
MONEY CROPS 
VEGETABLE-GARDEN CULTURE 4% 
SOLOLA-PANAJACHEL AREA 
The distribution of this culture in the Lake Atitlan 
region, to the north between Panajachel and Los 
Encuentros, San José and Concepcion, is elaborated 
41 Data furnished by Don Domingo Fuentes, of Solol4. Coffee was 
replanted on the delta land by the Fuentes family, but it, too, was 
washed away by a flood (October 1923). This vulnerable area has 
since been occupied only by a few cows, whose existence is insecure 
during September and October. 
42 Collected by me at Santo Domingo Suchitepequez. Standley com- 
ments upon the rarity with which cantaloups are grown in Central 
America, either through dislike of the taste or difficulty of propagation 
(Standley, 1938, p. 1390). I am inclined to favor the latter explanation, 
since both Indians and Ladinos seem to enjoy eating them when they 
can get them. 
See McBryde, 1933, pp. 108-109. Sol Tax, of the Carnegie 
Institution, has made a detailed economic analysis of the culture at 
Panajachel (1936), though his results are as yet in manuscript form. 
They include the hours of labor and dollars of profit per man per crop. 
in a later section (pp. 121-123). There are other 
centers, notably Almolonga and secondarily Agua- 
catan, where garlic is the chief crop, but since my 
familiarity is greatest with the Lake center, illustra- 
tions will be drawn primarily from there. 
The tablon as a garden unit.—The basic unit of 
this garden culture, as observed at Solola and Pana- 
jachel, is the tablén, a vegetable bed of highly fer- 
tilized, dark loamy soil, usually of uniform width 
(3 varas of 33 in., or about 8 ft.) and somewhat 
variable length (average, about 30 varas, often 
slightly more, sometimes only half that, depending 
largely upon the space available). Indian gardeners 
at Solola in 1932 almost without exception stated 
that they commonly used 500 to 600 pounds of 
manure (horse and cattle), costing from 50 to 60 
cents, on an average-size tablén (about 9 by 80 ft.; 
pl. 20), before each planting. Less fertilizer is needed 
on the rich alluvium of the Panajachel delta, though 
all planters use some. A consensus of my informants 
was that everyone used manure, but it was mostly 
leaf litter from the cafetales (coffee groves), with 
much less horse manure. 
The bed is neatly squared with great precision by 
skilled hoemen, so that it well suits its name (tablon 
—a thick board), being as flat on top and as square- 
sided, indeed, as a plank (pl. 20). A retaining rim 
of dirt several inches high is often built along tablon 
edges. Between tablénes and around them are dug 
trenches 15 to 20 inches (38 to 51 cm.) in depth, 
a foot or more wide at the bottom, having a profile 
that is between a V and a U, into which water is 
diverted when desired, to be thrown over the seeds 
or growing plants, with shallow tin bowls or gourds 
(pl. 20, c). This is done every third day during 
the dry season. Flooding is controlled by simple 
gates and dams that often consist merely of piled-up 
dirt. On slopes, tablénes are arranged in steps, and 
appear as distinct terraces about 3 yards (2.7 m.) 
wide. 
Irrigation.—The primary need of this culture is 
an abundance of available irrigation water. At Solola 
there are many small streams and springs, all of which 
are intensively utilized, with gardens of many 
tablénes clustered along their courses (map 21). 
Much of the diverted water supply of Solola is used 
for this purpose, and below the town, water courses 
that have passed through the settlement continue their 
usefulness for irrigation. At Panajachel, on the delta, 
about one-third of which is covered with gardens, an 
intricate, fanlike network of diversion ditches fur- | 
