Page:Memoir of a tour to northern Mexico.djvu/23

Rh in New Mexico, I doubt very much if even canoes could be used, except perhaps during May or June, when the river is in its highest state, from the melting of the snow in the mountains. The river is entirely too shallow, and interrupted by too many sand bars, to promise anything for navigation. On the southern portion of the river the recent exploration by Captain Sterling, of the United States steamer Major Brown, has proved that steamboats may ascend from the gulf as far as Laredo, a distance of 700 miles. Although said steamboat did not draw over two feet of water, yet the explorers of that region express their opinion, that "by spending some $100,000 in a proper improvement of the river above Mier, boats drawing four feet could readily ply between the mouth of the Rio Grande and Laredo." Whenever a closer connexion between this headpoint of navigation and New Mexico shall be considered, nothing would answer but a railroad, crossing from the valley of the Rio Grande to the high table land in the State of Chihuahua.

The soil in the valley of the Rio del Norte, in New Mexico, is generally sandy and looks poor, but by irrigation it produces abundant crops. Though agriculture is carried on in a very primitive way, with the hoe alone, or with a rough plough, made often entirely of wood, without any particle of iron, they raise large quantities of Indian corn and wheat, beans, onions, red peppers, and some fruits. The most fertile part of the valley begins below Santa Fe, along the river, and is called "rio abajo," or (the country) down the river. It is not uncommon there to raise two crops within one year. The general dryness of the climate, and the aridity of the soil in New Mexico, will always confine agriculture to the valleys of the water courses, which are as rare as over all Mexico–such, at least, as contain running water throughout the year. But this important defect may be remedied by Artesian wells. On several occasions I remarked on the high table land from Santa Fe south, that in a certain depth layers of clay are found, that may form reservoirs of the sunken water-courses from the eastern and western mountain chain, which, by the improved method of boring, or Artesian wells, might be easily made to yield their water to the surface. If experiments to that effect should prove successful, the progress of agriculture in New Mexico would be more rapid, and even many dreaded "Jornadas" might be changed from waterless deserts into cultivated plains. But at present, irrigation from a water course is the only available means of carrying on agriculture. The irrigation is effected by damming the streams and throwing the water into larger and smaller ditches (acéquias) surrounding and intersecting the whole cultivated land. The inhabitants of towns and villages, therefore, locate their lands together, and allot to each one a part of the water at certain periods. These common fields are generally without feucesfences [sic], which are less needed, as the grazing stock is guarded by herdsmen. The finest fields are generally seen on the haciendas, or large estates, belonging to the rich property holders in New Mexico. These haciendas are apparently a remnant of the old feudal system, where large tracts of land, with the appurtenances of Indian inhabitants as serfs, were granted by the Spanish crown to their vassals. The great number of human beings attached to these haciendas are, in in fact, nothing more than serfs; they receive from their masters only food, lodging, and clothing, or perhaps a mere nominal pay, and are there ore kept in constant debt and dependence to their landlords; so that if, old custom and natural indolence did not prevail upon them to stay with their