46 



THE lAND 



lands, is particularity illustrative of the tliflcrence 

 in economies of the local Indians and Ladiiios. 

 Corn is the important breadstuff to both, and it is 

 advantageous to grow at least enough for house- 

 hold needs. But only the rich are able to do so. 

 Few Indians, but most Ladinos, arc independent 

 enough of the need to earn a livelihood through 

 money crops to be able to grow corn instead. 

 (The same may be said of beans, another food 

 staple, which are grown disproportionately by 

 Ladinos.) A complementary reason for the differ- 

 ence is that Ladinos depend upon Indians for 

 agricultural labor, hence prefer crops that depend 

 less on intensive labor. Another case is the noted 

 Ladino preference for coffee as opposed to truck. 



Table S. — Truck-land use of Ladinos and resident and 

 nonresident Indians 



1 Including that rented from Ladinos. 

 ' Excluding that rented to Indians. 



The reason why the Jorgcnos use their land to 

 only 75 percent of capacity while the Ladinos use 

 theirs to 87 percent of capacity is that, as men- 

 tioned above, corn grown in the rainy season, 

 when onions are at low ebb, uses land more con- 

 tinuously. The difference in this case would be 

 more striking except that the Jorgenos grow so 

 many pepinos, which themselves occupy the land 

 much of the year. No doubt the Jorgenos gross 

 more from their pattern of truck-land use than do 

 the Ladinos; it will be seen later that the resident 

 Indians have struck a happy medium. 



Chart 4 depicts grajihically the use of sixty- 

 odd acres of truck land owned or rented by the 

 local Indians for which fairly reliable information 

 was obtained. This is a ';(: sample of all resident 

 Indian land and probably gives a good picture of 

 the whole. 



Since the Indian pattern is median, the picture 



that emerges is not unlike what would appear for 

 all truck land in Panajachel.^* The chart repre- 

 sents the area of each crop on the first day of each 

 month; but the interpolated impression of the 

 annual cycle of each crop must be fairly realistic. 



There are dilTerences in the use to which truck 

 land is put in different parts of town, but as may 

 be inferred from table 8, the class of the owner of 

 the land again is at least as important a differen- 

 tiating factor as the geography. For example, 

 the Ladinos grow corn, beans, and garlic on their 

 truck land no matter where it is located. Never- 

 theless, such a fact as that pepinos are grown more 

 on the west side than on the cast must be explained 

 by common belief that they produce better in the 

 less-exhausted land of the west side. Very much 

 more corn is grown on resident Indian truck lands 

 of the east side than of the west; this in a negative 

 way can also be attributed to this presumed 

 geographic factor. The reason why a greater 

 proportion of resident Indian truck land is in 

 garlic on the east than on the west side may also 

 be a matter of the soil, since much sandy soil — 

 said to be unsuited to garlic — is west of the river. 

 But it is still clear that the most essential determin- 

 ing factor in the use of the land, insofar as it is 

 not uniform, is the custom of the group to which 

 th(> faimer belongs. For whatever the origin of 

 such custom, and whatever its geographic and 

 economic base, the people of one element of the 

 population tend in general to use their land, no 

 matter where located, in much the same way. 



The details of truck-land usage among the 

 Indians for which such details are available are so 

 complex as almost to defy generalization. Varia- 

 tions on the patterns of truck-lnnd usage that have 

 been listed above are many, for within the lunits 

 set by the agricultural habits of the community, 

 there is sufficient leeway to permit a large number 

 of crop combinations. The way a particular 

 farmer uses his land depends upon the total 

 availabh? to him, and whether it is owned, on pawn 

 or rented ; what he supposes to l)e the nature of the 

 soil and the requisites of the crops; the immediato 

 past crop history of the land; market prices of 

 various products when jdans for the next crop or 

 next year are being made; and so on. In addition, 

 the financial state of the landowner — his consumer 

 needs, his obligations and debts — helps him deter- 

 mine how he should plant his land. Table 9, 



" Such a chart could be made from tlie data of table 7. 



