THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



109 



and close enough to enable us to translate it as 1 

 man-day. 



Table 27 sums up the number of man-days of 

 work that are required, on the average, for three 

 types of fields." Estimating that 9 out of 10 

 acres of hill land planted are old land — data 

 directly bearing on the question were not ob- 

 tained — it may be concluded that the average 

 number of man-days required for an acre of hill 

 milpa is about 50, as compared with the 36 re- 

 quired to grow an acre in the delta. The cost of 

 this labor may be definitely fi.xed at IG^s cents a 

 man-daj', whether the farmer does his own work 

 or whether he hires hands. Since in Panajachel 

 a man can virtually always obtain work himself 

 at the same rate of pay at which he hires labor, 

 a farmer's time has a definite cash value. The 

 cost given in table 26 glosses over a few irregulari- 

 ties: for example, the rich Indian who, in exchange 

 for 1 man-day of labor, allows his regular helpers 

 to plant a crop of beans on a cuerda (0.1 7S acre) 

 of his delta land; *' or the few Indians and Ladinos 



Table 27. — Labor required to grow 10 cucrdas of milpa 



^ This and similar tables (following) are based on information of at least 

 three careful informants and on the Report prepared for the President (Ap- 

 pendix 1). Since the Indians were interested in showing how much work is 

 required, one might eipect that they overestimated. Such is not the case, 

 however, for on checking the figures with others I obtained from several 

 Indians where the purpose was to Iigme out the profits from agriculture, 1 

 find that there is general agreement, and only a few cases in which the "offi- 

 cial" figures are higher than those I obtained. The figures of the tables 

 represent what a "good worker" does, and what a paid laborer is expected to 

 do. There are, of course, variations in practice due both to efficiency and 

 to differential soils, etc.; but they do not appear to be great. The totals do 

 not include time spent In guarding the milpa (usually done by children), in 

 making traps, etc., and in visiting the fields to see that all goes well. 



A man-day in these tables is defined as the work done by a full-grown man 

 in I working day of about 9 hours; 10 man-days of labor may be the labor 

 of 1 man for 10 days or of 10 men for 1 day. 



** Nobody rents bear land for cash, so that it is difl5cult to calculate the 

 value of this "favor" to the workers. Since beans are not profitably grown 

 on irrigated land, and they also probably return something to the soil, the 

 owner's labor costs may not actually rise by this arrangement. 



who allow their regular laborers the use of land, 

 rent-free, as a matter of good will and to assure 

 a regular labor supply. To such the cost of labor 

 is certainly' a little higher than the stipulated day 

 wage. 



Compared with the cost of labor, other agricul- 

 tural production costs are minor and on the whole 

 ununportant. Most of the cost of seed, fertilizer 

 leaves, poles, etc., really represent labor costs, and 

 from the point of view of the conmiunity as a 

 whole should be treated only as labor. However, 

 for a comparison of the costs of various crops it is 

 necessary in some cases to add certain items to the 

 cost of the labor. In this case, to the cost of labor 

 must be added the value of the seed used and also 

 certain ceremonial expenses in connection with 

 the harvest. The latter consist of candles and 

 incense, frequently burned in the field during or 

 after the harvest, and food, given or sent to the 

 laborers who help to harvest. Since the amount 

 of such gifts varies greatly, and since families 

 doing their own work are free of the expense, the 

 amoimts mentioned are necessarily rough approxi- 

 mations. The average expense for these items is 

 smaller m delta cornfields because, since they ai-e 

 small, it is rarely incurred. 



Depending upon the distance between plants, 

 hence partly on the quality and type of the soil, 

 and upon weather conditions which largely deter- 

 mine how much replanting must be done, the 

 amount of seed sown in the cornfield probably 

 ranges between 5 and 10 pounds per acre. The 

 average cost of the corn seed therefore is about 

 10 cents an acre.*' Where beans are also grown, 

 the cost (of 3 poimds per acre) comes to some 5 

 cents. The value of squash seed, for from 10 to 

 25 plants per acre, must average about 3 cents 

 an acre. In the estimate of the value of the pro- 

 duce in table 26, some items of value are not taken 

 into consideration. The green leaves removed 

 from the plant, the cornstalks, the dried corn 

 plant, and the cornhusks aU have important uses, 

 and are occasionally sold. I do not know how 

 much income they produced in 1936. 



Since costs remain virtually stationary from 

 year to year, it is apparent that the yield and the 

 price determine the profit or loss."" In 1936, with 



'> Commodity prices are discussed below, and summarized in Appendii 2. 



»6 In a wide economic sphere, of course, yield and price tend to be inversely 

 proportional; but in a community like Panajachel the relationship is not as 

 close, and it is possible (although not usual) for a poor local yield to coincide 

 with a low price in the country as a whole, hence in Panajachel. 



