Terron Vegetation in New Mexico

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Terrones are earth construction bricks cut directly from the natural sod of sedge meadows, and dried in the sun. Such bricks have been used for several hundred years in the Rio Grande valley, and today are produced commercially by Spanish and by Indian workmen. They are used chiefly by these two population groups, but to some slight extent by Anglos also. Although terrones are familiar objects to thousands of New Mexicans, we have been unable to find any reference to them in scientific, architectural, or popular writings, except that Weaver and Clements ('38, fig. 50) published a photograph of a terron field with the legend Subsere alternes in New Mexico due to the removal of sod for houses, . It will be pointed out later why use of the term adobe in this connection is contrary to southwestern usage. The cohesiveness of terrones is determined by the nature and abundance of the plant roots and rhizomes which bind the earth, and the texture of the soil itself. A heavy clay with abundant fine grass roots makes the best terrones, but even a sand containing as little as 15 per cent of clay and silt combined can be consolidated sufficiently by twenty years of plant growth. Experienced terron-cutters state that the abundance of roots is more important than the texture of the soil. Fibrous roots of grasses are most effective in binding the mineral particles. The most frequent terron plant is saltgrass, Distichlis stricta (Torr.) Rydb. It spreads rapidly by tough rhizomes in the upper two inches of soil, sending down a dense growth of fine roots farther than the depth to which terrones are cut, which is either six or four inches, for spade-cut, and machine-cut bricks, respectively. The terron fields studied are situated in alluvium along the middle Rio Grande north and south of Albuquerque, N. Mex. (fig. 1). Because at present most terrones are being produced near Isleta and Los Lunas, 13 and 21 miles south of Albuquerque, particular attention was