100 



INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY PUBLICATION NO. 13 



dicated, in a number of Totonac settlements of 

 that municipality, the major crops grown by each 

 family. The data are summarized below, with 

 entries in terms of the number of households. 





Tajin 



Plan de 

 Hidalgo 



Flan de 

 Palmar 



Santa 

 Agucda 



Volador 



Maize only _. 



10 

 1 



30 



56 

 

 

 



37 



5 







44 



22 



3 











15 



2 

 



40 

 

 5 



11 

 

 





 

 

 

 36 

 

 

 



3 



Maize, cane . 



Maize, vanilla 



Maize, cane, vanilla - 



Maize, beans 



Maize, beans, vanilla 



Vanilla onlv - - 



Not specified 





 24 

 

 173 

 

 1 

 



Total.. 



134 



89 



58 



36 



201 







The only basic crop common to these several 

 Totonac settlements is maize. Tajin and Plan 

 de Hidalgo are situated close to one another and, 

 expectably, their crops are roughly parallel ; both 

 emphasize maize, cane, and vanilla. In Plan de 

 Palmar, maize and vanilla are prominent; beans 

 also are reported but cane is not mentioned. Maize 

 and beans are the standard crops in Santa Agueda ; 

 they likewise predominate in Volador, which has, 

 in addition, some vanilla but no cane. 



The selection of crops is, in part, a matter of 

 personal choice. Pedro Perez, for example, pre- 

 fers cane to vanilla : "at the end of a year, the cane 

 can be crushed, but it is 3 years before vanilla 

 produces. Moreover, one must guard vanilla care- 

 fully or it is stolen." In part, however, natural 

 requirements of the plants limit the choice. A 

 level field, with poor drainage (known as an 

 aguachal) , will serve for cane or for vanilla but 

 not for maize; the latter requires good drainage 

 and does best on slopes. Vanilla can be grown 

 either on lands of good or poor drainage, but both 

 the yield and the life of the plant vary according 

 to soil conditions. 



MAIZE-VANILLA ROTATION 



Somewhat optimistically, one informant thinks 

 that a maize field may be planted continuously for 

 25 years, provided it is well tended and weeds do 

 not have a chance to establish themselves. Most, 

 however, put the estimate much lower. "In the 

 old days," according to Modesto Gonzalez, a field 

 lasted from 15 to 20 years; at first, two harvests 

 annually were possible, later, only one. Tirso 



Gonzalez calculates four good harvests (that is, 

 2 years) from a new field, after which the produc- 

 tion diminishes noticeably. However, he says that 

 ordinarily a field is worth cultivating 8 to 10 years. 



As a matter of fact, the maximum duration of a 

 maize field no longer is of much interest to the 

 Tajin farmer. Generally, at the end of 2 to 4 

 years, a field is allowed to grow to monte and, at 

 the same time, the crop is shifted from maize to 

 vanilla. Maize requires a clean field; vanilla re- 

 quires monte oajo. Since from the start it is a los- 

 ing job to protect the maize from the incursions of 

 the monte, the Totonac solution is very logical. 

 Monte is allowed to take possession of the field and 

 vanilla is planted in it. The vainillar, or vanilla 

 field, endures about 10 years, although toward the 

 end of this span the yield is low. As a rule, after 

 12 years, at the most, the vanilla is abandoned and 

 the field is given up completely to monte oajo. 

 This is allowed to grow unmolested for 10 to 12 

 years, following which it is cleared and maize 

 planted anew. 



In the opinion of the Totonac, this lapse of a 

 decade is necessary— not so much for the rehabili- 

 tation of the soil as for the growth of the monte. 

 If a field is cleared of young, half-grown bush, 

 the latter does not burn well. The seeds of many 

 annual weeds survive, so that when the plot is 

 planted, the corn is choked by a luxuriant growth 

 of mozote, coyolillo del raton, zacate de venado 

 (Nos. 325, 311, 288, respectively), and other ag- 

 gressive plants. Weeds are no imaginary menace, 

 and with monotonous frequency one hears that so 

 and so has abandoned his field : He gano la yerba? 

 or "se acahualo la milpa." Of our acquaintances, 

 at least eight lost their corn crop in 1948 because 

 they were unable to curb the growth of weeds. 



Although virtually all Totonac farmers seem 

 to feel that their chief problem is the never-ending 

 struggle against the weeds, most also recognize the 

 fact that the soil becomes exhausted. Despite the 

 lush natural vegetation, the top soil is relatively 

 thin— generally, not over 50 cm. — and it is only 

 expectable that it cannot stand continuous crop- 

 ping over a period of years. We have no concrete 

 data concerning soil exhaustion, but the three ad- 

 jacent cornfields of Victor Morales are suggestive. 

 One, cleared a year ago, has tall, strong plants ; an- 

 other, cleared 2 years before, has smaller plants ; 

 and in the third, now in its third year, the growth 



