QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



137 



become infested. The germinating and sprouting 

 seeds are subject to attack by ants, grubs, and 

 birds; and the growing plant is cut and under- 

 mined by rats, mice, rabbits, gophers, and ground 

 squirrels (especially the last two) who also nibble 

 on the young leaves. On rare occasions locusts 

 invade the area. However, there has not been an 

 extremely bad famine year since 1892, although 

 1S94, 1897, 1902, 1907, 1909, 1917, 1920, 1929, 

 1932, 1933, and 1939 had very poor harvests. 



Methods of storage vary e.xtremely. Usually the 

 nuiize is stored on the cob, and only as much is 

 shelled daily as is needed for domestic food, sale, 

 or feed for horses and mules. Small farmers, and 

 those families which have to purchase all of their 

 maize, often store the ears in a corner of the main 

 room (living room) or in a chest in the same room. 

 More common is storage in the attic or half story 

 (tapanco) above the main room; this is especially 

 common in the ranchos. An uncertain but con- 

 siderable number of families have a formal granary 

 (granero or troje in Spanish, cencalli or cincalote in 

 Mexicano, marita in Tarascan) which is in the 

 group of structures on the solar and may be a 

 separate small building or a room of the house. 

 A few of such granaries are in the form of the Sierra 

 Tarascan troje, but more often they approximate 

 the architecture of the house with adobe and stone 

 walls and roof of tile or shake. A few of the slat- 

 sided or crib type of granary {tziricua in Tarascan), 

 such as are common in the State of Mexico, were 

 seen, but they are rare and apparently temporary. 

 No square or cylindrical cincalotes on legs (such as 

 occur- in Guerrero) or vasiform cuescomates (of the 

 Morelos type) were noted. However, Gilberti 

 (1559) gives the word tsirimba for a troje on four 

 posts. When the ears are shelled the most common 

 implement, at least in the ranchos, is the olotera 

 or disk of corncobs tied together. Seed merchants 

 and grocers commonly keep the shelled maize in 

 wooden bins which only rarely are lined with metal. 

 There is a very considerable loss of both shelled 

 and unshelled maize from the depredations of 

 beetles, weevils, ants, rodents, etc. 



The statistics of production are highly um-e- 

 liable. We first attempted to find out the area 

 and amount of maize planted. There are about 

 1,100 hectares of land which are planted to maize 

 and/or wheat. This hectareage is cut down by 

 the amount left fallow each year. Perhaps 775 

 hectares are planted to maize each year — 350 in 



the region around Quiroga and 425 in the ranchos 

 and on the ejido. Some estimates run above 1,000 

 hectares, but we doubt this figure. We obtained 

 from all the farmers in the ranchos (with the 

 exception of Zirandangacho) the amomit of maize 

 that they planted in 1945. This figure was always 

 given to us in liters of seed planted. Since the 

 concensus in the area was that 20 liters of maize 

 were planted to the hectare we divided the sum 

 of 7,006 by 20 to obtain 350 hectares for the five 

 ranchos. The figure for the lowlands was obtained 

 by observation and guesswork. The variables in 

 determming the area are the amount of land 

 left fallow, and the amount of seed used per 

 hectare. Although we obtained figures ranging 

 from 5 to 24 liters of seed per hectare, most of the 

 farmers agreed on a figure around 19 or 20 liters. 

 The next step in determining production was to 

 obtain the rate of yield, since the outright state- 

 ments of production either were lacking or were 

 not creditable. Here the figures were very variable 

 and ranged from less than twentyfold to more than 

 two hundredfold, with most of the estimates falling 

 between thirtyfold and eightyfold. We estimated 

 the average yield at sLxtyfold, although some of 

 the better informed farmers and businessmen 

 insisted that it was only fortyfold. It is probable 

 that the volcanic ash fertilization of the area (from 

 Paricutin) since 1943 has improved production to 

 an extent not yet realized by many of the inhabi- 

 tants. Again, there is always the possibility that 

 the yield was estimated low because of the habitual 

 distrust of outsiders. Accepting a planting figure 

 of 20 liters per hectare, the average production per 

 hectare would be between 800 liters {Sjanegas) and 

 1,200 liters (12 janegas). These figui-es can be 

 compared with ranges between 1.5 and "35 Janegas 

 per hectare on different types of land in Cuitzeo, 

 Charapan, Cheran, and Tzintzuntzan. Using the 

 figures of 775 hectares of maize land and an average 

 production of 12 janegas per hectare we obtain 

 a total production of 9,300 fanegas; and using 

 other figures supplied by citizens of Quiroga we 

 obtain a production varying from 6,200 to 8,800 

 Janegas. The local figiu-es are undoubtedly too 

 small, and we are inclined to believe that our 

 figures should be raised somewhat in terms of an 

 average production of more than 12 Janegas per 

 hectare. However, this is all guesswork. Another 

 approach to the matter is through the local annual 

 consumption of maize. In normal years there is 



