The Floating Farms and Gardens of the Aztecs
"At last, made ingenious by necessity, they invented the floating islands..."
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From The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs by Lucien Biart, 1900.
Agriculture. — Chinampas, or Floating Islands. — Sowing the Seed. — Gardens. — Domestic Animals. — Cochineal. — Hunting. — Fishing. — Commerce. — Markets. — Roads. — Bridges.
In spite of the predilection of the Aztecs for the profession of arms, they neglected none of the useful trades, and they devoted special attention to agriculture. They, like all the nations of Anahuac, practised it at an early date. It is known that, during the long journey which, about the year 1160, brought the Aztecs from their primitive country as far as the shores of the lake where they founded their capital, they tilled the soil wherever they sojourned, and lived upon the crops. Conquered by the Colhuas and the Tepanecs, and shut up in the islands of their lake, they neglected agriculture for many years for want of land. At last, made ingenious by necessity, they invented the floating islands.
Their method of making these isles was very simple. With the aid of branches, roots, aquatic plants, and other light materials, they made a net-work sufficiently solid, then on this base they spread a bed of sea-weed, which they covered with the wet earth from the lake. These little islands, which were of the form of a parallelogram, were generally forty-eight feet long and eighteen broad, and they were about a foot above the surface of the lake. These were the first fields which the Aztecs had after the foundation of their capital, — fields on which they cultivated maize, allspice, and the vegetables they needed.
These movable gardens, called “chinampas,” multiplied, and many of them were used in the cultivation of flowers and aromatic plants. This usage has been perpetuated,, and to-day, as in the time of Moteuczoma, every morning a number of boats laden with vegetables and fruits gathered on these floating islands, the earth of which has no need of rain, arrive in Mexico by the canal which runs parallel with the promenade de la Viga. A hut is often built on these islands, which are ornamented with shrubbery. Formerly, when the proprietor desired a change of location, to escape a disagreeable neighbor, or to be near his relatives, he got into his canoe, and towed his field wherever he wished. In our day, the falling of the waters of the lake fixes the chinampas to the muddy bottom; they have become stationary.
As soon as the Mexicans had shaken off the yoke of the Tepanecs, their conquests furnished them lands so that they could apply themselves to agriculture. Having no knowledge of the plow, and possessing no domestic animal strong enough to help them in their work, they supplied this want by incessant labor, with the aid of a very primitive instrument. For digging the soil they used a sort of copper mattock furnished with a handle, and to cut down trees, they employed a hatchet likewise made of copper, somewhat like our own. Historians have neglected to describe the other implements which were used.
To irrigate their fields they used the water of streams which descended from the mountains. They knew how to build dikes, and to divide the precious liquid by small canals, in such a way as to make the best possible use of it. They allowed their lands to rest and become covered with weeds, which they burned during the dry months, to replace the salts carried away by the rains. They surrounded their fields with stone walls, or agave hedges, — impenetrable barriers still in use.
Their manner of sowing maize is still in vogue among their descendants. Provided with a sharp stick, the point of which has been hardened in the fire, the sower makes a hole in the ground, deposits in it one or two grains of maize, which he takes from a pouch made of rushes, suspended from his shoulder, and covers them with earth with his foot. He advances with a longer or shorter step, according to the nature of the ground, walking in a straight line as far as the end of the field, to return again to the other end. The parallel lines which he traces are so straight that it seems as if they were made with a string.
This way of sowing, although slow, is very productive, for it measures the seed in accordance with the quality of the soil, and allows none of it to be lost. When the plant reaches a certain height its foot is covered with earth, in order to fortify it and enable it to resist the wind. The ear having reached maturity, the stalk which supports it is broken, and it is allowed to dry in the sun.
Women, among the ancient Mexicans as well as among the modern, helped their husbands in agricultural labors. The man dug, sowed, and harvested; the woman shelled the maize and cleaned the grain.
The Mexicans had threshing floors for this last operation, and granaries for the storage of the harvests. They constructed these granaries with the trunks of “oyamel” (a sort of pine with a smooth bark), which they placed one above the other, enclosing a square space. When this building reached the proper height, they covered it with new trunks, and sheltered it from the rain with a roof. These granaries had but two openings: a narrow one in the lower part; the other, larger, at their upper part. Some of them were large enough to contain as many as six thousand sacks of maize. These granaries are still used at many places in the Mexican republic, and some are so old that they appear to have been constructed before the arrival of the Spaniards. In showing me these ancient storehouses, the Mexican farmers have often told me that grain is preserved in them better than in those copied from European models.
Near sowed fields, they built small towers of wood, in which a man, protected from the sun and rain, watched the birds and drove them away with a sling. This task is now confided to children; for the Mexican farmer, at the present time as in the past, is obliged to ceaselessly defend his crops against clouds of pillaging birds. Parrots attack maize, toucans fruits, grosbeaks the sweet pods of cotton-plants, and sparrows wheat.
The Aztecs were fond of gardens; they filled them with fruit-trees carefully planted in rows, with medicinal plants, and above all, with flowers. The last they cultivated, not only from taste, but in consequence of their custom of frequently offering bouquets to the king, the lords, and the ambassadors, and also of ornamenting their temples and private oratories with them. Among these gardens, those of the crown in Mexico and Tezcoco were celebrated. After the taking of Mexico, the Spaniards greatly admired that of a lord of Iztalapan, as much on account of its arrangement, as on account of the dimensions of the trees that ornamented it. This orchard was divided into squares, and it contained plants which delighted the senses. Between these squares were paths formed by fruit-trees and flowering-bushes. The ground was furrowed by small canals filled with water from the lake, and one of them was large enough to float a boat. In the middle of this park, there was a square pond, 1600 feet in circumference, inhabited by “temascallis,” a sort of oven to which we shall again refer.
Biart, Lucien. The Aztecs: Their History, Manners, and Customs. Translated by John Leslie Garner, A.C. McClurg & Co, 1900.
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