QUIROGA: a MEXICAN MUNICIPIO — BRAND 



141 



sists of two men, four animals, one pitchfork, and 

 -one spade. The animals, if rented, cost $1.50 per 

 day. A unit of four animals or bestias can stomp 

 out three threshings (tareas) of 40 manojos each 

 in one day. Each tarea yields an average of 

 1.0 to 1 .3 cargas (a carga is 161 kg. or 210 liters) of 

 grain. On some small holdings the wheat is 

 threshed with flails, but that method is quite rare 

 in the Quiroga area. 



The statistics on wheat production are even 

 more elusive than those for maize. Farmers 

 planted between 8 and 50 liters per hectare, 

 with the mean running about 26 liters. Yields 

 ranged from 2- to 4-fold on poor land, through 

 8- to 12-fold on intermediate land, to 30- to 44- 

 fold on the best lands. The average would fall 

 between 10-fold and 22-fold, but we are unable 

 to be more precise. State statistics claim that in 

 1883 (when the soil presumably was somewhat 

 richer) the yield was 12- to 15-fold, and the cur- 

 rent consensus is that the average yield is only 

 5-fold. Our slightly informed guess is that the 

 average yield was about 12-fold in 1945. On 

 the basis of 26 liters of seed per hectare this 

 would amount to a production of 312 liters, or a 

 little less than 1.5 cargas a hectare. The slopes 

 were said to produce 1 carga and the bottom 

 lands 2 cargas a hectare. Probably such low 

 yields represent only a poorer than average year. 

 In a normal year the average production prob- 

 ably would run between 2.75 and 3.25 cargas a 

 hectare. The Mexican average is 4.8 cargas a 

 hectare. At least 100 farmers in the ranchos 

 plant wheat, for a total of between 250 and 300 

 hectares. Perhaps another 50 farmers raise wheat 

 on some 200 hectares in the lowlands — including 

 irrigated fields near Zirandangacho and solares in 

 town. The total Quiroga production in a normal 

 year should amount to about 1,350 cargas (216,000 

 kg.), with annual fluctuations between 750 and 

 2,000 cargas. In 1944 a carga of wheat sold for 

 $48, but before the end of 1945 a carga was selling 

 for $56.50 up to $57.75 at the mill. Where the 

 farmer formerly had purchased seed wheat for 

 about $50 a carga, it advanced to $58.80. Appar- 

 ently Quiroga and its ranchos normally supply 

 only a minor part of the 9,248 cargas milled an- 

 nually in Quiroga, and the remainder comes from 

 the rest of the municii^ality, from Tzintzuntzan, 

 other parts of Mexico, and even from the United 

 States. The net income of the wheat farmer per 



hectare (computed in the same fashion as for 

 maize, but not charging for taxes and equipment 

 depreciation which were wholly deducted previous- 

 ly) probably amoimted to about $50 on the average 

 in 1945, and about two to three times that amount 

 in normal and good years. 



HABAS OR BROADBEANS 



Hahas, known in English as horsebeans, broad- 

 beans, and Windsor beans, were introduced by the 

 Spaniards in the first few years after the Conquest. 

 These large beans or vetches (Vicia faba L.) are 

 native to the Mediterranean region, and are the 

 classic beans of occidental culture which domi- 

 nated before the mtroduction of the New World 

 kidney bean. Because habas nitrify the soil, are 

 not so demanding of the soil as maize and wheat, 

 and because they can be grown under cool to cold 

 conditions in the highest cultivated fields, they 

 have become an important field crop in the high- 

 land areas of Michoacdn. In the Quiroga region 

 most of the habas are raised in the highland 

 ranchos, especially in Icuacato and Sanambo. 

 Several varieties are cultivated, which diS'er prin- 

 cipally in the color of the bean, size of the bean, 

 and length of the fruit or pod. The most com- 

 mon form grows to a height of about a meter, is 

 quite leafy and produces a good hay, and has a fruit 

 from 10 to 15 cm. in length and a large thick 

 angled and compressed seed normally brown in 

 color. The Tarascan name for this bean is 

 casiillapu cocotsi which means Spanish scarlet 

 runner bean because of its nearest native counter- 

 part in size and its introduction. The haba is not 

 much consumed locally excepting on certain feast 

 days from Christmas to Easter and during Lent. 

 One of the more common dishes is boiled cold 

 habas eaten individually with a dusting of sweet- 

 ened pinole. Apparently the bulk of the habas 

 is shipped out, and the hay is fed to livestock — 

 although haba hay is extremely susceptible to 

 attack by "worms." For about 15 years until 

 recently the acreage planted to habas decreased 

 steadily and was less than that of kidney beans, 

 but a rejuvenation of the upland soils with vol- 

 canic ash from Paricutin has caused a considerable 

 expansion, beginning in 1943. At present habas 

 are planted on from 250 to 400 hectares each year, 

 which places them ahead of kidney beans. In 

 1945 there were about 160 hectares of habas 



