CHERAN: a sierra TARASCAN village — BEALS 



67 



amount of labor. Not only must rastrojo be 

 cut, but the animals must be visited every 2 or 

 3 days while in pasture. 



The question may be raised why horses or 

 mules have not replaced oxen to any extent. 

 Although horses or mules will do at least twice 

 the amount of work in a day, owing to their 

 greater speed and ability to work longer hours, 

 they do not thrive on the corn fodder, wheat 

 straw, and scanty pasturage. Grain feed is 

 also necessary, at least during the working sea- 

 son. In general, horses and mules are more 

 delicate and require more attention, greater 

 skill, and better shelter. Finally, their initial 

 cost is greater and they cannot be slaughtered 

 for meat, as are oxen, when they have outlived 

 their usefulness as draft animals. 



Wheat. — Although wheat is the primary cash 

 crop of Cheran, it is seldom grown on lands 

 which will produce good maize. Wheat is often 

 grown on inferior land, often on slopes, but 

 never on really bad lands. Farmers using 

 good land for wheat usually have a surplus of 

 maize lands. 



The cultivation of wheat takes a little less 

 labor than does that of maize. Plowing is the 

 same or perhaps a little less (the second plow- 

 ing being shallower) . Broadcasting of seed 

 and harrowing equate with maize planting, 

 but it is a one-man job and requires no oxen if 

 the farmer owns a burro. The primitive har- 

 vesting with a sickle would seem to call for 

 more labor, but estimates were fairly low. A 

 summary of estimates for cultivating a hectare 

 follows : 



Labor : Bays 



First plowing 10 



Second plowing 10 



Sowing and harrowing 2 (or less) 



Harvesting 4% 



Total labor 26% 



Costs : ^^= 



Labor (26V2 days at $0.45, value) $11.92 

 Rent of oxen (20 days at $0.75, 



value) 15.00 



Taxes 1.00 



Seed 1.00 



Total production costs $28.92 



Interest on capital invest- 

 ment 11.00 



Total cost of cultivation 



$39.92 



The best wheatland produces about 2 car gas 

 of wheat per hectare ; lands producing less than 

 l\'-> cargas are seldom cultivated. The wheat 

 must then be threshed before sale, and this will 

 cost $2.50 a carga in the mill and about the 

 same if threshed by hand. The wheat will sell 

 at from $22 to $30 a carga, depending upon the 

 market ($26 in 1941). 



The return in cash, then, is between $33 

 (II/2 cargas at $22) and $60 (2 cargas at $30). 

 The net profit in terms of our calculations would 

 vary between minus $10.67 and plus $15.08. 

 This figure does not count the labor of carrying 

 the wheat to the house and thence to the mill, 

 or winnowing ; neither does it include the value 

 of the straw (used as feed). Again, however, 

 the Cheran farmer who received $33 for his 

 year's work on a hectare would count himself 

 relatively fortunate. 



The return from wheat is less than the poten- 

 tial return from maize cultivation on average 

 land. In general, however, wheat is usually 

 grown on lands giving a poor maize yield. 

 Moreover, the demand for wheat appears to be 

 more stable, and in days when transport was 

 all on pack animals the greater value of wheat 

 per volume and weight made it much more 

 attractive as an export crop. The opening of 

 the highway may alter the situation, as it makes 

 bulk transportation of maize feasible. On the 

 other hand, the highway has opened up new 

 markets for wheat. Trucks from the large 

 flour mill at Morelia now come to buy wheat in 

 Cheran and even penetrate to mountain villages 

 such as Pichataro. Consequently, a much 

 wider market is available than the regional 

 mills that could be reached in a day or a little 

 more with burros. Of course, similar expan- 

 sion of markets is available to maize growers 

 and producers of other products. It is still too 

 early to predict the effects of improved com- 

 munications on the agriculture of Cheran, but 

 some additional considerations are discussed in 

 connection with trade. 



Another way of disposing of wheat is to sell 

 it at a flour mill in a Mestizo town or convert 

 the wheat into flour and sell the flour. The 

 price paid at flour mills is about $4 a carga 

 above the Cheran price. Mills charge an 18 

 percent discount if the farmer chooses to have 

 his wheat milled. This covers waste, bad 



