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INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 1 1 



was considered to be the most fertile wheat-pro- 

 ducing area in Mexico. One of the two oldest 

 wheat mills in Michoacan was located in the 

 Patzcuaro Basin and this mill (on the site of the 

 present mill of San Rafael or Chapultepec about 

 7 or 8 miles southeast of Quiroga) was visited by 

 Ponce (1872) in 1586, who said that it ground all 

 the wheat of the lands around the lake. He went 

 on to say (vol. 57, pp. 537-5.38) that there was 

 much wheat and of a very good quality, especially 

 one strain known as siete espigas (seven ears or 

 spikes). We were unable to find this term em- 

 ployed at the present time. All the wheat that we 

 saw was of the semihard turgid floury type grain. 

 Locally the forms are known by differences in color 

 (red and white), bearded and beardless, and ac- 

 cording to planting season (summer, fall, and 

 winter). All combinations among these three clas- 

 sificatory groups are known, but the principal 

 wheat is a red (Colorado) bearded {harbon) wheat 

 planted in the fall (aventurero) . White wheat {trigo 

 bianco) constitutes a very minor fraction of the 

 wheat produced, and little of it reaches the mill. 

 Beardless wheat (trigo pelon) is not favored because 

 it is more subject to attack by birds, and a strong 

 wind will cause it to shatter more than the bearded 

 wheat. Oidy a little wheat is planted in the 

 winter (trigo de la rosa), in November and Decem- 

 ber, on the richer and moister soils of the lowlands 

 and the joyas of the highlands after the fields have 

 been cleared of maize and beans. This later wheat 

 is harvested in May and June, about 40 days after 

 the main wheat harvest. An even smaller amount 

 of wheat is planted during the summer rainy 

 season (trigo de Ian aguas) , and this is harvested in 

 December and January. We heard of a bearded 

 palmillo wheat, but were not able to fully 

 identify it. 



Wheat suffers by comparison with maize as to 

 uses made of it in the area. Although about 

 12,000 44-kg. (about 100 pounds) sacks of flour 

 are milled in Quiroga each year, there is relatively 

 little consumption of wheat in any form. Only 

 about 160 or 170 families (20 percent of the 

 population) commonly eat wheat bread in any 

 foi'iu — French rolls, small sweetened breads (pan 

 dulce), cookies, biscuits, crackers, etc. Further- 

 more, all who use wheat bread also use maize. 

 There is occasional use oi the meal of white wheat, 

 ground on a metate, in thick tortillas (gordas) and 

 atoles. Most of the straw is used to feed livestock, 



but a little is used in the making of fire tans and 

 comparable items. 



Wheat is raised principally on the slopes around 

 Quiroga and in the ranchos, and most of it follows 

 a period of fallowing. The most common cultiva- 

 tion sequence commences with an initial plowing 

 (often followed by a cruza) between the middle of 

 August and the middle of September. Then, in 

 September and October, the field is sown broadcast 

 by strips, the wheat seed is plowed under, and a 

 small log with branches (commonly oak or haw- 

 thorn) is dragged over the field to break the clods 

 and harrow in the seeds. This manner of seeding 

 is cjuite inefficient and wasteful. The wheat sprouts 

 in about 2 weeks. Nothing more is done by the 

 farmer until the reaping period, which normally 

 commences in the first week of Api'il. Most of 

 the wheat is reaped and threshed by the end of 

 April. Two or three men commonly will cut a 

 wheat field, working at the rate of 7 to 12 man- 

 days per hectare, depending on the density of the 

 wheat growth. Each man is equipped with a 

 short-handled crescent sickle or hoz (usually with 

 sawteeth, which are added to the purchased hoz), 

 and with this he moves slowly down a swathe 

 (melga, three to four paces wide and the length 

 of the field) in back-breaking bent-over position, 

 cutting the wheat plants handful by handful. 

 Several handfuls of wheat are piled in a heap or 

 navilla and later about every six naviUas will be 

 gathered and tied into sheaves or manojos. The 

 manojo is tied with two knotted lengths of wheat. 

 Reapers are paid by the melgar and may earn as 

 much as $2.25 a day. Immediately after the 

 reaping the sheaves are brought to a threshing 

 floor and the wheat is thi-eshed, sacked, and packed 

 by animals to the mill or a granary. If the field 

 is customarily planted to wheat there will nor- 

 mally be a permanent slab-paved thi'eshing floor 

 (era) at some centrally located unplowed spot or 

 at the margin of the field. Otherwise a temporary 

 era will be constructed by shoveling off' the loose 

 earth from a polygonal ai'ea about 8 meters in 

 diameter, tamping the earthen floor, placing a 

 guard or edging of stone slabs, erecting the neces- 

 sary corner posts, and stringing one or two ropes 

 around to keep the threshing animals from stray- 

 ing. Most of the eras we saw were nine-sided, and 

 could hold from 4 to 12 animals (usually horses 

 and mules — but there are very few mules in the 

 Quiroga area). The average threshing unit con- 



