38 



THE LAND 



high above the delta. A piece of land is used for 

 pasture. Otherwise the west hill is sterile. The 

 measure of its unproductivity is the fact that in 

 1936 only about 50 acres, 45 cornfield and 5 

 pasture, produced more than firewood and perhaps 

 a few wild plants. Very few more than these 50 

 acres, certainly less than 12 percent of the whole, 

 is utilizable agriculturally. 



A much greater proportion of the east hill, more 

 irregular in its rise, can be put to agricultural and 

 pastoral uses. The entire slope is not part of the 

 territory of Panajachel, or included in this study; 

 perhaps the upper third is land of the neighboring 

 municipio of San Andres. The 530 acres of 

 Panajachel land, including territory from the base 

 of the hill to the San Andres line and from the 

 boundary with Santa Catarina to the plantation 

 "Natividad," are not aU show^n on map 4, but 

 their limits may be seen in the insert map. 



The figures in chart 2 are accurate to within a 

 few percentile points except for the uncertain line 

 between the land "at rest" and unutilizable, 

 which is little better than a guess. The cornfield 

 land classified as "resting" had been used before 

 1936, as evidenced by the land itself and specific 

 information from many informants, and some of it 

 has been planted since 1936, while other cornfields 

 have since lain fallow. The unused land, like that 

 which is never utilizable agriculturally, is mean- 

 while a source of firewood and useful plants. 



This east hill is watered by three streams and a 

 spring that is tapped for the town's water supply. 

 In 1937 a small fraction of an acre of land watered 

 by the largest of the streams, in a relatively level 

 pocket half way up the hill, was utilized for vege- 

 table growing in the dry season. By 1941 this 

 vegetable area had grown to several acres. By 

 1941 also, the hillside acreage devoted to cofl'ee 

 had grown to 50 or 60 acres, at the expense of 

 cornfields. 



If fallow land, including pasture, is called agri- 

 cultural, it may be said that all potentially agricul- 

 tural land was so utilized in 1936. No case ap- 

 peared in which apparently suitable land was said 

 to be left indefinitely untilled for anj^ reason. This 

 is not to say that all land was used optimally. 

 Evidence to the contrary is the fact that after 1936 

 some was cultivated more intensively by replacing 

 corn with cofTee and vegetables. Nor do I have a 

 way of knowing if some of the land that was resting 

 should not really have been planted, or that some 



that was planted should not have been resting. 

 But it seems clear that by and large all suitable 

 hill lands are, over the course of years, put to 

 agricultural uses. 



DELTA LAND 



It is with somewhat more confidence that I 

 turn to data on the delta portion of Panajachel. 

 First, because the area is much more easily 

 delimited (as shown on map 4) as being confined 

 by the two hills, the lake, and the boundries of the 

 fincas to the north. Second, because the land, 

 bemg level, is relatively easily paced off; the topog- 

 raphy presents few problems, even to one not ex- 

 pert in such matters. Third, because once the 

 area is mapped to scale, the accuracy of the 

 dimensions of plots of land, as furnished by in- 

 formants, can be checked by measurements on 

 the map itself.^* 



The area of the delta comprises about 581 

 acres, divided as follows: 



Aeret 



West of river bed 319 



River bed 130 



East of river bed 132 



The river bed is an expanse of stones, sand, and 

 gravel; although in places small foliage has taken 

 root, the whole of it may be considered sterile 

 waste. A few garden beds made during the dry 

 season on reclaimed patches at the east edge of the 

 river bed occupy less than a fifth of an acre. A 

 generation before, according to all reports, the 

 river bed was only a half or a third of its 1936 

 width; and it has continued to widen by erosion 

 of the fertile banks. At the time of study, stone 

 walls near the right bank helped to protect it (the 

 other was without any protection at aU) ; since 

 then, a flood serious enough to be reported in the 

 United States has doubtless made this statement 

 obsolete. 



Aside from the river bed, almost all delta land 

 is utilizable agriculturally. During one rainy 

 season an avalanche of rock and water from the 



'I The deltii was originally mapped, with the help of natives and o( a simple 

 compass, in April of 1936. Data on land use, and ownership, as well as houses 

 and other fe:itures, were plotted. When this map, reduced and printed, 

 was shown to Dr. F. W. McBryde, 4 years later, and compared with a sketch 

 of the same area that lie had made in September 1936. it was apparent that 

 revisions would be necessary. Therefore in 194(M1 the map was revised In 

 the field; McBryde himself came to Panajachel in the course of his work and 

 together we checked a number of points. Later, using McBryde's revised 

 map (see McBryde, 1947, map 23) as a base, I went over every part of the delta 

 and made further small corrections. Map 4 is thus the result of collaboration 

 between McBryde and me; but final responsibility for errors is mine. 



