THE LAND 



39 



east hill rendered a strip of land useless. Some 

 of it had been reclaimed by 1936; some 3 acres 

 remained untilled and presumably untillable. 

 In two places on the west side of the delta, irriga- 

 tion ditches had cut small ravines and rendered 

 fractions of an acre unsuitable for farming. In 

 addition, land within a few feet of the lake edge 

 cannot be cultivated because of the sweep of 

 the waves. Otherwise all of the land is utilizable 

 for agriculture. However, as seen in the following 

 estimate, 48 acres are diverted from agricultural 

 purposes for Iniildings, roads, irrigation ditches, 

 etc., not counting the narrowest footpaths and 

 irrigation ditches or the little land occupied by 

 fences and land boundaries, which are themselves 

 frequently paths and ditches. 



Acreage not utilizable agriculturally: 



Buildings, cemetery, houses and patios, etc — 31 



Streets, roads, larger paths 13 



Main irrigation ditches 4 



Unsuited to agriculture: riverbed 130 



Otherwise unsuited to agriculture 7 



Total 185 



Potentially agricultural-pastoral 396 



Total acreage of delta 581 



Of the 396 acres remaining for agricultural uses, 

 only about 10 were not so used in 1936. In 

 other words, almost 97 percent of potentially 

 agricultural land, almost seven-eighths of non- 

 sterile land, and about two-thirds of all delta 

 land, including the river bed, were used agricul- 

 turallj' or pastorally. As will be seen below, not 

 all this is so used during every month of each year, 

 but if the information compiled is correct, all 

 of it was used during at least part of 1936, and 

 the general picture had not changed by 1941. 

 Actually, somewhat more than the mentioned 

 seven-eighths of the nonsterile land is regularly 

 in production, for in the patios and gardens of 

 the houses are always to be found fruit trees 

 and flowers, and even vegetables, with commercial 

 value; and lining the roadsides are numerous 

 fruit trees. 



The proportion of land in cultivation is greater 

 on the east side of the river than on the west by 

 about 4 percentage points, owing chiefly to the 

 fact that the Ladinos, whose houses and patios 

 occupy much more space per family, live almost 

 exclusively on the west side. The large white 

 spaces west of the river shown on map 4 are the 



houses, stores, and hotels OMmed by Ladinos (and 

 one Ladino-owned piece of land used in 1936 as 

 a public playing field and since brought under 

 cultivation). It is a main thesis of this section 

 that land use cannot be discussed without refer- 

 ence to the class of owner, for the questions resolve 

 themselves into discussion not so much of "What 

 kinds of land are used for what purposes?" but of 

 "To what uses do different kinds of people put 

 their land?" Suffice it to say here that the geo- 

 graphical differences are less important than the 

 "racial," and that specifically the Indians cultivate 

 a much greater proportion of the land at their 

 disposal than do the Ladinos. 



The following summary, dealing only with land 

 put to agricultural-pastoral uses, classifies it some- 

 what arbitrarily: 



Acres Percent 



Truck 142 37 



Coffee 193 50 



Cornfields only 14 4 



Pasture only_^ 38 10 



Total 387 101 



The classification "coffee" is clear, for occupation 

 by coffee bushes is visible and year-round. The 

 term "truck," on the other hand, requires explana- 

 tion. On the irrigated land of the delta a wide 

 variety of vegetables is grown, with growing 

 seasons of 2, 3, 4, 6, or 11 months. In a large 

 number of cases this land, devoted to onions, 

 garlic, beans, etc. in the dry season, is planted 

 with corn during the rainy months. In some cases 

 this program is carried out year after year. In 

 any case, I have called such land "truck" even 

 though I would prefer that the word not include 

 corn. Some land, however, is never cultivated 

 except during the rainy season, and then is planted 

 only with corn. This land, usually of different 

 quahty from truck land, I have classified separately 

 as "cornfield only." The land called "pasture 

 only" is land that was not cultivated in 1936 but 

 on which animals regularly grazed. Animals also 

 grazed along the edges of the river bed and the 

 lake shore, on a few parcels of the truck lands for 

 several months during the year, and in the dry 

 months also on land devoted to corn in season. 

 This land of course is not classified as "pasture 

 only." 



A thesis will be developed that in general Pana- 

 jachel lands are utilized as intensively as possible, 

 especially those owned by Indians. Explanation of 



