THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



113 



normal 1936 prices (Appendix 2), the cash value of 

 the yield in 1936 was, per acre: 



Good harvest $144. 00 



Medium harvest 72. 00 



Poor harvest 52. 50 



Table 31. — Cost of growing garlic 



An individual would thus lose $32.82 per acre 

 (not counting braiding time) if the harvest on his 

 land is all poor. An acre is much more than any 

 Indian plants, but the loss would still be consid- 

 erable for a cuerda. If the harvest is all good, on 

 the other hand, the profit would be tidy, even 

 countuig the time for braiding. From calculations 

 made with two informants, I judge that in the 

 community as a whole about 40 percent of the 

 garlic beds deliver good harvests, 40 percent 

 medium, and 20 percent, poor. Using these fig- 

 ures, the average net loss, counting the cost of 

 braiding, is $8.10 per acre, or the average net 

 profit, leaving out the cost of braiding, is $11.58. 

 It must be concluded that Panajachel farmers can 

 hardly expect to break even on garlic. This does 

 not even count the value of the land. Paradox- 

 ically, however, it probably pays to rent land for 

 garlic, because in general the Indians rent for the 

 purpose only "new" land which yields large heads 

 of garlic. Thus even if $33.75 is paid as rent for 

 an acre (table 14) there will be a net profit for the 

 garlic crop of $5.25 even countmg the braiding 

 cost; and of course the renter in addition has the 

 use of the land for the months between garlic 

 crops. 



BEANS 



Beans grown in irrigated fields (table 32) also 

 have all costs charged to labor, the seed coming 



from the previous harvest. With 67^ pounds 

 sowed to the acre, and the yield 800 pounds of 

 shrub beans or 1,400 pounds of pole beans ^' the 

 ratio is K2 or jii, respectively. This assumes of 

 course that none of the beans are picked green. 

 The value of the harvest, meanwhile, $12.80 and 

 $22.40, respectively, leaves a net loss of $22.80 for 

 shrub beans and $27.26 for pole. 



Any way one does the bookkeeping the result is 

 the same, and there can be no doubt that growing 

 beans in the delta is a losing business. The reason 

 it must be is that the price of beans is set on the 

 basis of the rainj^-season product gi-own with the 

 milpa. The labor of making tablones and watering 

 increases the cost tremendously without any cor- 

 responding increase in yield. 



These figures and this discussion concern the 

 growing of mature beans. However, an estimated 

 30 percent of Panajachel farmers sell part of their 

 yield of shrub beans while still green, and virtually 

 every one sells most of his vine-bean crop in that 

 stage. No labor is saved by cutting the beans 

 green since none would be required for the ma- 

 turing beans; on the other hand the cost of cutting 

 green beans is more than the cost of harvesting 

 and threshing dry beans. If all delta beans 

 should be harvested green, the total labor per 

 cuerda would rise from 38 and 53 man-days to 40 

 and 56, worth $37.49 and $52.49 per acre, re- 



Table 32. — Man-days required and cost of growing 

 beans in garden beds 



Work process 



Making beds (assuming that ^^ of beans are 



planted in "new land" 



Planting .._ 



Weeding (cleaning) — once 



Watering (except first 3 weeks; then twice weekly 



for 3 and 4 months respectively, H day each) 



Gathering poles ( 16 days every third year) 



Setting up poles 



Harvesting and carrying dry beans 



Sunning and threshing dry beans 



Laborthathasgoneinto seed 



Total. 



Man-day per cuerda 



17 

 2 

 3 



14 

 5 

 8 

 1 

 1 

 2 



"' A good informant helped me calculate for shrub beans a range of 676 to 

 900 pounds; in an independent case recorded the rate was 844 pounds. The 

 range for pole beans was calculated at 1,125 to 1,665 pounds. 



