Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-07-19
FARMING IN YUCATAN.
Plenty of Laborers but Little Laboring-
A Novel Threshing Machine.

One of the finest haciendas in all Yu-
catan is that of Xcanhakan, its great
stone buildings, enclosed within bas-
toned walls, looking more like the pal
ace of some feudal lord than the
latter-day residence in republican Am
erica. Nearly n thousand men and
women are employed upon the estate,
and the cattle-yards, water tanks, and
other accessories are all on the largest
and most substantial scale. The sys-
TEN of agriculture in Yucatan is as
primitive as can be imagined. Besides
the hemp and sugar, which the Indians
seldom attempt to raise on their own
account, the principal products of the
country are corn and beans. If we
accept garlic, which grows without
cultivation, hardly enough vegetables
are raised to supply the people. Gala
bazas are grown Ca cross between a
pumpkin and squash), few camolis,
which seem like asecond cousin to our
potatoes, and chill without limit. A
little cotton is cultivated here and
there, and sugar in limited way, for
all the best sugar lands are in that Sec
ton now mOnopolized by the savage
Chan Santa Cruzans.
Corn is the great staple and the Gull
tivation of it differs little from the sys-
tenn followed by the Indians before the
conquest. During the dry season, gen.
orally in January or February, place
is selected in the woods, from which
the trees are cut down and burned.
The corn is planted in May or June by
IL Al,
a pointed stick, putting a few grains
into each, and covering them over.
Once III the ground, it is left to take
care of itself, and if the crop be scan
ty it is attributed to the poorness of
the soil. Plow, hoe, and harrow, are
alike unknown, and weeds and corn
keep pace together. About the only
agricultural implement used in Yucca
tan is the machete-a long, clumsy
weapon, which is neither knife, sword,
or scythe, but combination OF all
three, and answering for everything,
from carving meat to cutting paths
through the trackless forests, and per-
forms surgical operations for the doc
tor, as we'll as murders for the high
wayman. In this part of the world no
Indian is ever seen without his ma
chete, and owing to the stony face of
the country it serves better in farming
than pillow or harrow.
When it comes to threshing the corn
a space is cleared about one hundred
feet square, and along its borders are
hung line of hammocks in which the
Indians sleep all through harvest time,
each hammock having a little fire be-
meath it to drive away mosquitoes and
warm the occupant in the chilly night
air. The threshing machine is surely
not an infringement on any Yankee
patent, but looks more like a home
made bedstead than anything else. 1t
is rude scaffold, say 20 feet square,
made of four upright posts for corners,
with poles dashed to them horizontally
three OF four feet from the ground and
across a layer of strong sticks placed
side by side. The parallel sticks serve
as threshing floor, on which the corn
is spread. On each side rests a short
laslder, and on each ladder stands a
nearly naked Indian, pole in hand,
beating the corn with all his might.
The grain falls through, and at each
corner, under the elevated floor, man
sweeps off the cobs with q broom made
of bushes, the shelled corn being after
ward taken up in baskets and carried
to the hacienda. Where men are plen-
ty and labor counts for next to nothing
probably this process answers as we'll
as the best threshing machines ever
invented. -Pf5J0del22ht0 Record.