THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE 



119 



When it was pointed out to Indians that it did 

 not pay them to raise fowl, their most frequent 

 reply was that it is good to have chickens for sale 

 when money is needed. 



HOGS 



Hogs, not bred in Panajachel, are bought when 

 young and fattened for sale. Of the 29 families 

 that were fattening hogs in 19.36, 11 had 2 head 

 each, and none had more than 2. An 8-month-old 

 pig bought at about a dollar,'^ is sold after 7 or 

 8 months for from 3 to 6 dollars, and a young one 

 bought to replace it. Pigs are rarely allowed 

 loose, since the houses are surrounded by gardens ; 

 their diet is therefore chiefly kitchen waste and 

 corn. An hour a week by the wife and children 

 probably takes care of them. Hogs are certainly 

 very poor business. Some of the Indians who 

 realize this give it as the reason why they do not 

 raise them. Others, although they know hogs are 

 not profitable, may not realize how much they 

 actually lose, and raise them as a means of invest- 

 ing money when corn is more plentiful, for liquida- 

 tion when money is scarce. A wealthy Indian 

 with two pigs estimated that they consimied 1,400 

 pounds of corn (worth $17.50) and 10 pounds of 

 salt (worth 15 cents) in the fattening process. In 

 addition, he spent a doUar to make a pen and 26 

 cents to castrate and keep the young boars in good 

 health. He did not figure the additional cost of 

 rope, which came to about 24 cents, or the value of 

 the time involved. Including the original cost of 

 the pigs (but not time spent), he had invested 

 $20.15 by the time they were fattened, and the 

 pigs were worth but half of that. This man, who 

 grew his own corn, perhaps did not calculate his 

 losses; certainly the factor of saving money does 

 not enter in his case, for he is wealthy and usually 

 has cash on hand. Juan Rosales recalls that in 

 his wealthy father's house when he was young they 

 once took to raising pigs; when they had 2 or 3, 

 the amount of corn consumed by the pigs was not 

 noticed particularly; but when the number 

 soared to about a dozen, they saw that the corn 

 supply was rapidly dwindling and then did some 

 calculating and thereafter never raised pigsl 

 There are other similar cases in my notes; certainly 

 many Indians know that a pig's consimiption of 3 



'3 They are usually bought in S0I0I&, but they are sometimes bought more 

 cheaply elsewhere. In 1940 I was told they sold for 40 cents at the annual fair 

 In Chichicastenango, and at least one Panajachelefio went there to buy a pig. 



or 4 pounds of corn daily for 8 months makes hog 

 raising unprofitable. A young Indian of a poor 

 household learned his lesson in 1941. About 

 November 1, 1940, he told me proudly that he had 

 a pig fattening. It cost him $1 and in from 4 to 6 

 months would be worth $4. He thought it was a 

 good practice: "It is no good if people eat all of 

 their corn every day; give some to the pig, and it 

 grows and you get money out of it. You don't 

 notice the daily expense in corn, and later when 

 you need it, you will get a large sum of money." 

 He said that the pig ate 3 pounds of corn daOy. 

 When we calculated the cost (as he himself had not 

 done) he was surprised. In 6 months the pig 

 would consume $6.50 worth of corn! But he still 

 thought it was a good way to save money. On 

 January 11 he complained that (although 3 weeks 

 before, he had turned down an offer of $2.50 for 

 his pig, now quite fat) he was offered only 

 $1.50. On February 5 he told me that the pig 

 weighed 150 or 175 pounds and he was getting no 

 offers for it, the butchers apparently all going to 

 Atitlan to buy hogs. On March 23 he finally sold 

 the animal to a local butcher for $3; he said he 

 was tired of feeding it corn while waiting for a 

 better price. A week later the butcher killed the 

 pig and found it diseased and the young man had 

 to return $1.50 of the purchase price. He swore 

 that he would never buy a pig again. 



GOATS AND SHEEP 



Goats are bought when young for about a dollar 

 and sold for twice that when grown. Sheep simi- 

 larly are worth 75 cents when yoimg, $1.50 when 

 grown. Like pigs, they are simply fattened, al- 

 though in times past they were sometimes bred. 

 The goats are not milked, but the sheep are oc- 

 casionally shorn and the wool sold or used in the 

 house in pillows. Since goats and sheep are 

 pastured in the river bed, along the roadsides, and 

 in the hills, virtually their only expense is the 

 value of the time taken incidental to other tasks, 

 no more than, say, 3 hours a week. Occasionally 

 a sheep is fed corn-dough water that is left in the 

 kitchen, but that has no money value. On the 

 whole, there is probably Uttle gain or loss in 

 fattening goats and sheep. 



CATTLE 



At least four of the six famihes owning cows 

 (one of them owning three) also owned a calf of 



