4S 



THE lAND 



also widely ijrown in the delta in the dry season 

 entirely apart from corn, in separate gardens; 

 these beans will he discussed separately. Squash, 

 of the kinds called ayoies and chilacayotes, are 

 very infrequently grown in the delta cornfields, 

 but almost universally in the hills, planted between 

 the rows of corn at wide intervals, and never 

 except in cornfields. 



Corn is grown only in the rainy season -' on 

 the hillsides, where it is virtually the only crop 



" Occasionally a rich Indian plants a tew stalks of com In Irrigated delta 

 fields during the dry season. The Indians recognize the practice as uneco- 

 nomical; some insist that for some reason such out-of-season corn does not 

 produce. 



Table 9. — Resident Indian truck crop patterns ' 



In readmg the fable, the columns (but not the figures) are "cumulative." 

 iV v'^'V"'""' "^^' colunm, ninth row) it is seen that there are 2 cases in which 

 all of the land is planted with onions and garlic, hut part of it with milpa 

 in fe ison, every other year; in alternate years pepinos are grown instead. 



• 1 case, part of land idle. 



b 2 cases, less than half pepinos. 



' 1 case, beans all year; others, beans followed by more onions. 



d 1 case, also vegetables. 



• 1 case, milpa only exery second year. 



' 1 case, beans on all the land part of year. 



« 1 case, 2 pieces of land changed off. 



I" 3 cases, garlic land idle after harvest; others, onions fill In the year. 



1 1 case, beans all year; in others, the land rented from Ladinos for only 

 the bean season. 



I 2 eases, part of land idle. 



^ 1 case, less than half pepi-nos. 



■» Land idle after garlic harvest. 



» In 1 case there is an onions-milpa sequence and in .another case abeans- 

 milpa sequence replacing the garlic-milpa sequence every third year; in these 

 cases pepinos are grown only every third year. 



"I case, only I of the 3 crops (beans, garlic, or onions) grown in a year, and 

 each one every third year. 3 



" 1 case, pepinos grown consecutive years, producing no crop the third year. 



that is planted, and also in the delta where for the 

 growing season it is permitted to displace other 

 truck crops. The growing season is about 8 

 months, from May through December, including 

 the 6 months of the rainy season and the first 2 

 months or so of the dry season, during which the 

 ears ripen. 



The tools used in milpa agriculture are the ax, 

 machete, occasionally the pickax, a wooden har- 

 vesting nail, and above all others the hoe. Neither 

 plows nor draught animals are ever used. Trees 

 need rarely be felled in preparation, so axes are 

 much less used than machetes (imported, broad- 

 bladed knives some 18 inches long with 6-inch 

 handles), used to cut small trees, bushes, and 

 brush. The hoe is used not only to turn over and 

 break up the soil, but also to chop away and scrape 

 off undergrowth of all kinds. Typical is the 

 broad-bladed hoe; but for some purposes a hoe 

 with a small blade (once a large one, worn down 

 by use) is employed. 



No fertilizer from outside the field is normally 

 added. Exceptionally animals graze on hillside 

 land between crops and while it lies fallow; other- 

 wise fertilizer is never added, although after the 

 harvest the cornstalks and leaves are allowed to 

 rot, or are gathered and burned to enrich the soil. 

 Delta land, used the year-round, is fertilized, but 

 not especially for milpa; it is planted with one 

 crop or another year after year without becoming 

 exhausted. Hillside land presumably does become 

 exhausted; it is then allowed to lie fallow for a 

 number of years, during which wild vegetation 

 grows, to be cut and burned when use of the land 

 is resumed. Such land is called "new land"; it 

 may remain fallow so long that many forget that 

 it was ever cultivated. I cannot say for how long 

 land may be uninterruptedly planted with milpa 

 and still produce a crop. Indians talk about 

 "tired" vs. "fresh" or "new" land, and differences 

 in fields between the two; the criterion for "ex- 

 haustion" (i. e., at what point a field would not 

 be considered worth planting again) is not clear. 

 The life of land depends in part on its inclination; 

 the more level the land, the longer it can be used. 

 I have cases of gentler slopes which produced 

 profitable crops after 12, 15, and 25 years of con- 

 tinued planting. This contrasts with a piece on 

 a steep hillside that had been planted for "about 

 10 years" and given up to rest because exhausted, 

 to remain unplanted for "about 6 years." 



