. Bulletin. Ethnology. 26 AGRICULTURE fn. A. E. tion to maize, "they also sow beaup and melons, which are excellent, especially those with a red seed. Their squashes are not of the best; they dry them in the sun to eat in the winter and spring" (Voy. andDiscov., in French, Hist. Coll. La., IV, 33, 1852). The foregoing applies chiefly to the region e. of the Rocky mts., but the native population of the section now em- braced in New Mexico and Arizona not only cultivated the soil, but relied on agriculture to a large extent for subsist- ence. No corji was raised or agriculture practise
. Bulletin. Ethnology. 26 AGRICULTURE fn. A. E. tion to maize, "they also sow beaup and melons, which are excellent, especially those with a red seed. Their squashes are not of the best; they dry them in the sun to eat in the winter and spring" (Voy. andDiscov., in French, Hist. Coll. La., IV, 33, 1852). The foregoing applies chiefly to the region e. of the Rocky mts., but the native population of the section now em- braced in New Mexico and Arizona not only cultivated the soil, but relied on agriculture to a large extent for subsist- ence. No corji was raised or agriculture practised anywhere on the Pacific slope N. of the lower Rio Colorado, but frequent mention is made by the chroniclers of Coronado's expedition to New Mexico of the general cultivation of maize by the In- dians of that section, and also of the cul- tivation of cotton. It is stated in the Relacion del Suceso (Winship in 14tli Rep. B. A. E., 575, 1896) that those who lived near the Rio Grande raised cotton, but the others did not. The writer, speaking of the Rio Grande valley, adds: "There is much corn ; '' From the earliest information we have of these nations [the Puel)lo Indians] they are known to have been tillers of the soil, and though the implements used and their methods of cultivation were both simple and primitive, cotton, corn, wheat [after its introduction], beans, with many varieties of fruits were raised in abundance" (Bancroft, Nat. Rac, I, 538, 1882). Chile and onions are extensively cultivated by the Pueblo tribes, as also are graj^es and peaches, but these latter, like wheat, were introduced by the Spaniards. The Indians of New Mexico and Ari- zona had learned the art of irrigating their fields before the appearance of the white man on the continent. This is shown not only by the statements of early explorers, but by the still existing re- mains of their ditches. "In the valleys of the Salado and Oi\a, in s. Arizona, however, casual observation i
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