EMPIRES CHILDREN: THE PEOPLE OF TZINTZUNTZAN FOSTER 



73 



kept him from accepting money. He is a res- 

 caton and as such does not work for money. 

 Also, the straw was very desirable as fodder for 

 his burros. 



Disposal of crops depends upon the individ- 

 ual farmer, amount of production, size of his 

 family, and so forth. Generally, maize is rais- 

 ed for home consumption; only 10 farmers 

 produce enough to sell. This means that Tzin- 

 tzuntzan draws on the surrounding agricultural 

 area for its basic food, since three-fifths of the 

 families pioduce no maize at all. In 1945, 

 maize sold for .f0.175 a liter at harvest time, 

 and up to $0.30 in the months before harvest- 

 ing. Purchase is usually by the cuarteron of 4 

 liters, and various notes show average fluctuat- 

 ing prices from S0.70 to $1.20. In April 1946, 

 maize sold at .$1.00 a cuarteron. Calculations 

 of agricultural profits and family incomes have 

 been made on the basis of $0,225 per liter. 

 Some farmers in need of money may sell a 

 part of their crop al tiempo, on time. The pur- 

 chaser buys at half price a predetermined num- 

 ber of fanegas while the maize is still young. 

 The farmer has the money at this time, but 

 must deliver the maize after harvest. Should 

 the harvest be poor, just enough to cover the 

 amount of maize sold on time, he takes a disas- 

 trous loss. If there is a complete crop failure, 

 which is not very likely, the purchaser loses as 

 well — he has the right to what maize there is 

 up to the amount he purchased, but the farmer 

 is not responsible for any deficiency. 



Beans sold in 1945 at $0.30 a liter, and the 

 price increased 50 percent or so before harvest 

 time. Although it is difficult to tell, it appears 

 that Tzintzuntzan produces just about enough 

 beans for the local market. Next to maize they 

 are the most important food, although there is 

 a surprising number of families in which they 

 are eaten but rarely. 



Wheat is the main export crop. Most is sent 

 in trucks to the mill at Patzcuaro, where after 

 harvest in 1945 it was sold at an average of 

 $55 a carga of 220 liters. For calculations of 

 agricultural profit and family income, wheat 

 has been figured at $0,275 a liter (.$60.50 a 

 carga). Wheat rises to about $65 a carga be- 

 fore the next harvest. Lesser amounts are sent 

 to the mill at Quiroga. Small amounts are 

 ground on metates to make a thick wheat tor- 



tilla known as a gorda. A few farmers, not 

 large producers, may carry wheat to the mill 

 at Quiroga, a few cuarterones at a time, where 

 it is ground for $0.20 the cuarteron. Families 

 doing this will eat gordas while the wheat lasts 

 and thus cut down on their purchases of bread. 



Estimates of crop production are among the 

 most difficult problems facing the ethnologist, 

 and perhaps the problem most open to error. 

 Estimates by landowners are worth little, since 

 usually they have only the remotest idea of the 

 size of their lands. One Tzintzuntzeiio, after 

 neatly answering my questions about amount 

 of seed per hectare of milpa, size of crop, num- 

 ber of days of work for each step, and so forth, 

 blandly asked, "And just what is a hectare?" 

 Actual milpas must be known, and the processes 

 of planting, cultivating, and harvesting be ob- 

 served over the entire period. With this as a 

 base, it is possible to calculate roughly for good 

 and bad years, since the owner can say that 

 he harvested half as much or three times as 

 much the preceding year. This observation is 

 time consuming, and in Mexico close rapport 

 to make possible even rough mapping of milpas 

 can be established with only a limited number 

 of individuals. Hence, the relatively accurate 

 sample is small, and may not include all types 

 of land. And, with all possible care it is not 

 possible to be at each milpa under observation 

 each day when work is being done. This means 

 that the ethnologist at times must ask, "How 

 many persons helped you in the escarda today," 

 and the farmer, trying hard to be truthful, 

 may overlook a boy who, nevertheless, is of 

 economic importance. Or, after visiting a field 

 in the morning and noting for oneself, another 

 ox team and driver may appear just after one 

 has left. Likewise, there is the problem of 

 equating 12-year-old boys with grown men, in 

 terms of work output, not to mention women. 

 Hence, no one is more conscious than the author 

 of the possible errors in the data which follow, 

 nor more critical of the results. 



All data are based on actual milpas, whose 

 area was determined by pacing. On level rec- 

 tangular milpas this gives a rather close ap- 

 proximation to the true area. On hilly or irreg- 

 ular milpas, and those formed of several small 

 pieces of cultivated land, the error is consider- 

 ably greater. Cases 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 (ta- 



