THE LAND 



53 



milpa seasons to fill in the remaining 4 months. 

 The tools employed in truck farming are the pick- 

 ax, the hoc, a i)ointed wooden stick, and a tin basin 

 or a gourd for watering. In general the techniques 

 employed are those of a home gardener; a great 

 deal of meticulous hand labor is involved. 



All except a few plants, especially pepinos and 

 tomatoes, are grown in rectangular garden beds 

 called tabUmcf:. These beds, neatly and sharply 

 raised above clean straight troughs that separate 

 them, are characteristic of the irrigated lands of 

 the town. Singly or in patches of a dozen or two 

 they are to be fountl in all parts, surrounded by 

 coffee and fruit trees. The amount of land avail- 

 able sometimes limits the leiigth (ideally 32 varas 

 or about 88 feet), but rarely changes the width 

 from its apparent optimum of three rams (about 

 8 feet). If a bed is wider than this, it is difficult 

 to reach the center from the gutters; if narrower, 

 too much space is wasted by the gutters. The 

 standard is a bed 3 by 32 varas, with eight beds to 

 a cuerda. Most of the working time of the 

 Indians, at almost any time of the year, is spent- in 

 making the beds or planting, transplanting, water- 

 ing, weeding, or harvesting the vegetables. 



In the dry season, the land is first thoroughly 

 flootled; the softened soil is then dug up with a 

 pickax and the raised rectangles are formed by 

 moving earth from gutters to beds. Even a bed 

 that is remade from an old one is carefully dug up 

 to a dei)th of 2 feet and the soil turned. Every 

 twig and stone is removed, but leaves and rubbish 

 are left for fertilizer. The edges are carefully 

 tamped down, work that requires the greatest 

 sldll. After a few days the bed is watered and 

 then smoothed: every lump must be broken and 

 the bed made perfectly level lest water collect in 

 depi'essions. 



ONIONS 



If seed is to be planted, tlie lied must be especial- 

 ly carefully smoothed ami even small pebbles re- 

 moved. A pound of onion seed is sprinlded 

 evenly over the surface, the planter moving along 

 the trough, then covered with an inch of damp 

 black soil containing rotted coft'ce leaves, and the 

 whole carefully covered with broad leaves to keep 

 off the sun. Every 3 days the leaves are lifted 

 and the bed is watered. Watering is alwa\'s done 

 by standing in the flooded trough and with a tin 

 basin or a gourd sprinkling fron.i above. When 



the plants come up, in about 9 days, the leaves are 

 removed; then the plants are watered daily with a 

 fine spray until 2 inches high, after which they are 

 watered only once in several days, or when the 

 plants seem to need it. In 2 months the seedlings 

 are ready for transplanting. Beds for transplant- 

 ing have been readietl, and now with the aid of a 

 pointed stick the plants are uprooted and placed 

 in a basket. Half of the head and a quarter of the 

 green is' cut off, and dried leaves are removed. 

 The seedlings produced in one tablon are sufficient 

 to plant eight iablones of onions. 



Transplanting is usually women's work. Each 

 seedling is, witli the aid of a stick, inserted in the 

 earth with the thumb. The onions are evenly 

 spaced 4 inches apart, unless large onions are 

 desired, when 5 inches are left between. Onions 

 (or other vegetables) are also usually planted 

 along the oblique edges of the bed. Some people, 

 when they transplant, sow seed of other herbs on 

 the bed at the same time, and the best of these are 

 left to grow with the onions. As the onions grow, 

 they are regvdarlj' watered and weeded. When 

 they begin to flower, the tips of the greens are cut 

 off. Before harvesting, the ground is softened 

 with water. After pulling up the onions, the 

 hairy root and any wilted leaves are cut off (and 

 often left on the bed for fertilizer), the onions are 

 graded by size and tied into bunches of 10 for 

 market. 



Some beds of onions are allowed to go to seed, 

 almost always in October so that the seed may 

 mature during the drj^ months. They are 

 fenced off' and carefully watched, and the soil is 

 fertilized with the droppings of barnyard fowl. 

 At the time that- seed rejjlaces flowers, the field is 

 flooded for an hour or more. Seed is produced 

 from mature onions in about 5 months, thus from 

 seed in 10 or 11. When ripe, half the stalk is cut 

 off", and a number of stalks are tied together and 

 hung heads down in the kitchen to dry. ^^Tien 

 dry, the seeds are removed from the stalks and 

 painstakingly husked with the fingers, the chaff 

 picked out by hand. Seed is sold as well as 

 usetl. A tablon of seed is enough to grow about 

 an acre of onions. 



Yields. — The yield of a standard tablon of 

 onions varies considerably according to the soil, 

 the care, the weather — hence the season — and the 

 health of the plants. Onions may be graded as 

 "large," "medium," and "small" and a tablon 



