114 



THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



spectively. The green beans harvested would be 

 worth an average of $33.75 for shrub beans and 

 about $45 for vine beans, for some loss. This 

 hypothetical case (no Panajachel farmer harvests 

 all of his beans green) indicates that it does not 

 pay to grow beans no matter how they are har- 

 vested. 



VEGETABLES GROWN FROM IMPORTED SEED 



Vegetables grown from imported seed (4 cents 

 a package) are planted in such small quantities 

 (on pieces of garden beds or at the edges) that 

 calculations are best made per package of seed 

 (table 33), which occupies some 3 square varas 

 (1/32 of a tablon or 1/1500 of an acre). A package 

 of beet seed yields 200 beets, transplanted to about 

 1/750 of an acre; cabbage seed, a hundred heads 

 transplanted to 1/45 of an acre. The total costs 

 come to about $93.60 per acre of cabbage; $135, 

 beets; $165, carrots, radishes, and turnips. 



The cabbage yield per package ranges from 100 

 large and 50 small heads to only 50 small heads; 

 the normal yield is said to be about 50 large and 50 

 small heads. Beets are said always to yield well 

 "because they are fertilized" — 100 large and 100 

 small beets. The best carrot yield per package is 

 said to be 100 large and 200 small, the usual 80 

 largo and 200 small, and the woi-st 60 large and 200 

 small. Radishes are said to yield 100 per package. 

 When good, they are all large, when poor all small. 

 Turnips yield 200 per package — all large when the 

 harvest is good and small when it is poor. It is 

 apparent from table 33 that only cabbage gives 

 promise of much profit — and correspondingly it 

 is risky. 



ROOT CROPS AND PEPPERS 



The profits from truck farming in general are 

 greater than indicated because sweet cassava, 

 sweetpotatoes, and peppers are growTi along the 

 edges of the garden beds and although they take 

 virtually no e.xtra time to produce, they yield good 

 income. In an acre grow about 540 cassava plants, 

 90 percent of which produce after 2 years. Each 

 plant yields 2 to 3 pounds, so that the annual pro- 

 duct is about 600 pounds per acre, worth $9. 

 Simultaneously some 6,300 sweetpotato plants can 

 grow on the acre. But since most farmers grow 

 these only on two edges of each tablon (onions or 

 garlic on the others), the average number per acre 

 is probably only 4,500, 80 percent of which live to 



Table 33. — Returns from vegetable growing 



yield from 1 to 2 pounds per year, for a total of 

 6,400 pounds, worth $64. The several varieties of 

 peppers planted like sweet cassava are not a 

 common crop. Perhaps the added income from 

 peppers raises the total income from tahl6n-%dge 

 produce to $80 per acre per year. Probably a 

 fourth of all Indian tablon acreage has these crops 

 and yields this e.xtra income. However, they take 

 the place of about 1,500 onion plants, where they 

 grow, and thus reduce the onion yield by 30 per- 

 cent. It may bo estimated that 20 percent less 

 onions are grown in the community than the 

 onion acreage would indicate. 



PEPINOS 



Pepinos are evidently a very profitable crop 

 when grown on "new" land, for if the costs 

 (table 34) are compared with the estimated yield 

 (see p. 55), it wUl be seen that an acre at its best 

 produced a net of $237.38. An average harvest, at 

 1936 prices, grossed $206.70 for a net of $114.48. 

 The poorest yield, grossed $69.76, for a loss of 

 $22.46. Evidently it paid well to rent good land. 



COFFEE 



To the cost of labor in growing cofl'ee (table 35) 

 might be added that of the fertilizer used when the 

 coffee is transplanted from nursery to grove. 

 Amortized over 30 years, it cannot add more than a 

 few cents. If the owner has no husking machine, 

 the rental (for husking a yield of 562 pounds) 

 comes to 57 cents, the total cost thus rising to 

 $9.86. Against this cost was an income of $33.72, 

 for a net of $23.86 per acre.'^ To this should be 

 added about $1.40, the value of the berry pulp, 

 used as fertilizer. In fact, however, the poorer 

 Indians profited less than this, for they sold their 

 coffee as futures for $3 and $4 a hundred pounds. 



^ Calculated on the basis of yields discussed above (p. 66) and the lO-a- 

 hundred price that Panajachel coffee brought in Panajachel in 1936. 



