Flood-Water Farming

Abstract

HE usually clear distinction between irrigated and unirrigated T farm land breaks down in the consideration of marginal lands irrigated by flood water. In some instances there is complete transition, and fairly well designed irrigation systems are maintained to utilize water during the time of heavy run-off in the spring, although enough water may be available for only one irrigation. There are also areas of meadowland that were originally more or less flooded and are now maintained as wild hay land by simple diversions and by drainage. But in the western United States there are also many areas, usually of small acreage, where the growth of crop is dependent on sporadic and muddy floods. No regular system of diversion or of conveyance of water is maintained; but areas selected as likely to be flooded are planted, and those portions of the field not too badly washed by water or covered by silt make the crop. This is flood-water farming, precarious type of agriculture, long practiced in our Southwest in both ancient and modern times. It should be distinguished from dry farming, in which after each rain the soil moisture is conserved by producing dust mulch that prevents evaporation. The two types are alike in that the fields are generally isolated and frequently abandoned. Both types are dependent on the uncertainties of the weather, and hence such fields are called by Spanishspeaking people, temporales. The irrigated field is labor or labor regado. Sembrado, a planting, is also used as substitute for temporal, as all such fields are more often planted than harvested. As maize, or Indian corn, is the principal crop, the Nahuatl word milpa is also used, although more strictly it means cornfield whether irrigated or not. Flood-water farming is practiced in the more remote areas of the Southwest and was more prevalent in the early days of settlement than at present. Some recent studies by Quesenberryl indicate that it may still play part in the modern development of the region. The purpose of this paper2 is to consider the geographical relation-