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 abundant food to eat or sell. At X-Hazil Sur and generally throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, 

 however, there is little incentive to produce an excess of crops. Crop storage, for example, is a 

 problem due to insects and crop predators (Villa Rojas, 1987). Also, rural Maya people generally do 

 not buy large amounts of food on a regular basis, but instead use their cash to buy clothes and durable 

 goods. While garden size may vary among families, the most important consideration is that a 

 gardener must have a large enough garden to meet the needs of his family. 



Considering how weather, crop predation, and economic practices can vary over time and from 

 region to region, it is remarkable that garden size apparently has varied little over the past 60 y in the 

 Yucatan Peninsula. Redfield and Villa Rojas (1962), for example, reported average garden sizes of 2.9 

 ha (1930; n = 52 gardens) and 2.5 ha (1931, n = 46 gardens). Villa Rojas (1987) reported average 

 garden sizes of 1.5-2.3 ha (n = 52 informants, each with 1-3 gardens; combined total of 4.7 ha of 

 gardens per informant), depending on the type of garden. Murphy (1990) reported average garden 

 sizes of 1.9 ha for old gardens and 2.9 ha for new gardens, for a total of 4.8 ha per household (n = 59 

 households). At X-Hazil Sur, the average garden size was 2.1 ha in 1989 and 2.7 ha in 1990. These 

 values were very similar to the average garden sizes cited above and suggest that garden size varies 

 little from year to year and region to region in the Yucatin Peninsula. 



Based on the 1989 garden data for X-Hazil Sur, the total amount of land used as gardens on the 

 ejido was about 5.45 km" (ca. 1% of the total study area). This was substantially less than the figure 

 of 33.56 km^ presented in Table 2-3 that was based on information provided by the Plan Estatal 

 Forestal. While the reasons for this difference are not clear, it is possible that the photo-interpretation 

 did not clearly differentiate between active gardens (mlpas) and previously active gardens (acahuales). 

 This would be highly possible given the small size of gardens (1-3 ha), large scale of aerial 

 photographs (1:37,000), and the time of year when the aerial photographs were taken. According to 

 the information on the aerial photographs, the flights were conducted in February, about 3-4 months 

 prior to the planting season. This likely contributed to an overestimate of the area in gardens because 



