DOCUMENT RELATING TO LABOR 



209 



Truck Farming — Continued 



Carrots (in tablones) : Same as for growing 

 onion seedlings, omitting the 2d culti- 

 vation; watered the same as onions; re- 

 main 4 months in the tablones. 

 Cucumbers (in tablones) : 



Planting and fertilizing 1 labldn Do. 



Cultivation (only one) of 1 tabldn Do. 



(Remain in tablo7>es 3 months; watered 

 twice weekly.) 

 Tomatoes (in tablones) : 



First seedlings are made just as with 

 onions; transplanted in new tablones 

 with same tasks as for planting 

 sweet pepinos, below. Watered 

 same as pepinos. 

 1 cultivation (only) : 2 tablones, with 



ridges Do. 



(Tomatoes remain in tablones 3 

 months.) 

 Sweet pepinos (by cuerdas) : 



Scraping 1 cuerda Do. 



If land turned over, 1 cuerda 4 days. 



Digging the holes in 1 cuerda 2 days. 



Bringing and applying fertilizer, 1 



cuerda Do. 



Planting 1 cuerda 1 day. 



Watering 1 cuerda (done twice weekly) Do. 

 Cultivating and ridging the mounds of 



each plant of 1 cuerda 2 days. 



(Cultivating done monthly; fruit har- 

 vested after 1 year). 

 When the plants bear, fences are made: 



Finding posts for 1 cuerda 1 day. 



Planting posts for 1 cuerda Do. 



Finding reeds for tying poles and 



canes Do. 



Cutting and hauling cornstalks 



to fence 1 cuerda 5 days. 



Building the fence around one 



cuerda 3 days. 



Sweet cassava and sweetpotatoes : (in 

 furrows 32 varas long) : 



Making 2 furrows 1 day. 



1st cultivation of 4 furrows Do. 



2d cultivation of 4 furrows Do. 



(Remain 6 months in ground; watered 

 twice weekly). 

 Coffee: 



Planting: 



Opening 25 holes Do. 



Uprooting 50 plants with dirt Do. 



Carrying 100 plants a distance of 1 



km Do. 



Planting 100 plants Do. 



(The shade trees require the same 

 amount of work as the planting of 

 the coffee itself.) 



Coffee — Continued 

 Harvesting: 



Cutting (picking) 1 50-pound sugar 



sackful of berries Do. 



Husking and picking-over 1 50-pound 



sackful Do. 



Washing 4 50-pound bags of husked 



coffee Do. 



(Washed coffee should be sunned for 

 5 days.) 



Fruit trees always require a little work, such as removing 

 the parasites from the branches and harvesting such fruits 

 as Spanish plums, cross sapodillas, avocado, limas, oranges, 

 etc. For the vegetable pear plants trellises must be made 

 to raise the branches, etc. 



The work in this town is not done in the same time as that 

 in other pueblos because on every piece of land we have 

 more than one thing planted, and we must do each task 

 very slowly so as not to harm the things growing. Those 

 things which require only three or four months to grow in 

 the tablones are planted more than once a year: 

 Onions are planted three times a year. 

 Garlic is planted twice a year. 

 Black beans are planted twice a year. 

 It must be remembered that some tasks require more than 

 one worker: cleaning the onions, clearing land in the hills, 

 etc. Making up the accounts, it can be seen that only the 

 tablones of one cuerda of onions give many man-days of 

 work. 



Every Friday, Tuesday, or other day of the week all 

 must go to the markets of other towns to sell the products 

 of our fields. 



There are some who fatten animals such as steers, cows 

 for milk, sheep, etc., and it takes part of their time to give 

 the necessary care to the animals. 



We make our houses in the form of ranchos, and for these 

 we must go out some days to the country to find lumber, 

 reed, cane, thatch, etc., and it takes time to build the 

 houses. 



Firewood is very important in our homes, especially in 

 winter; we must prepare it on rather a large scale to save 

 ourselves the worry when it rains much. 



In the summer we must go to fi:< up the irrigation ditches 

 of the town, sometimes farther than one kilometer; because 

 we all use this water to water our fields, it often takes longer 

 than listed above. 



The onion seed which we harvest here is so delicate that 

 it takes much time and patience to cut it, transport it, dry 

 it, and clean it; it is so little that much is required to make 

 up a pound. (This is aside from the time it has been in the 

 tablones, its watering, fertilizing, and care given it against 

 afflictions it may suffer.) 



Dated, Panajachel, August, 19S7 . 

 [Signed by all the Indians] 



