THE RUINS OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 55 



even more unpropitious that was 1909-10. If a rainfall of 2.88 inches in that year could 

 cause the diininution of the crop to the extent of five-sixths, it requires no demonstration 

 to show that the fields must have been almost useless in the 9 j-ears, since 1867, when 

 the winter rainfall has been less than that amount. Many attempts have been made 

 to cultivate areas outside the 300 acres now in use, but have met with no success. Of course 

 in years like 1904-05, with nearly 15 inches of winter rain and 6 in the summer, or 1906-07, 

 with nearly 8 in the winter and 11 in the summer, fine crops can be raised in a great many 

 places ; but this is the exception, not the rule. 



To sum up the conditions at C'harco Yuma as set forth by the two men quoted 

 above and by others, it appears that no permanent supply of water is available without 

 the digging of wells at least 25 feet deep. The nearest permanent supply of surface water 

 is 8 miles away. A period of two full years may elapse without a single temporary flow of 

 water. The total amount of land capable of cultivation amounts to about 300 acres, or 

 enough for 150 people, but this yields very variable crops, falling off as much as 85 per cent, 

 even in years which are by no means the worst. We are almost certain that the ancient 

 Hohokam knew nothing of wells, for not only have none ever been described among their 

 ruins, but the total absence of iron implements would render the digging of deep wells 

 practically impossible. Moreover, the Hohokam had no winter crops of any importance, 

 for the indigenous grains and food plants of America do not lend themselves to winter 

 growth. Hence the ancient inliabitants were Hmited to the products of the summer 

 rains. Now, according to Ruelas, no flood water reached Charco Yuma in 1885, when the 

 summer rain amounted to 3.01 inches, the minimum on record, nor in 1886, when it 

 amounted to 4.27. We may safely say that if no water reached the place with a fall of 4.27 

 inches, crops of any appreciable value could scarcely be raised with less than 5 inches. 

 Dviring the 45 years for which records are available, 15 summers, or one-third, have had a 

 rainfall of less than 5 inches. Hence we seem compelled to conclude that under Hohokam 

 methods of agriculture the total amount of land now available for cultivation amounts to 

 only 300 acres, which would yield no appreciable crop at least one year out of three. 



The Hohokam lived in this vicinity in large numbers. In the fields around RilUto 

 Station, according to Mr. Langhorn, the plow frequently turns up bits of pottery or stone 

 implements from beneath 5 or 6 inches of fine silt deposited by recent floods of the Santa 

 Cruz. Half-way from the station to the Point of the Mountains a gravelly tract of older 

 alluvium in the midst of the silty areas of later deposition is also well strewn with pottery. 

 These evidences of the presence of the Hohokam suggest a somewhat numerous population 

 scattered wherever alluvial land occurs. No special stress, however, should be laid upon 

 these facts. They are unimportant compared with the phenomena of Charco Yuma proper. 



Where the Tucson Mountains jut their last spur forward toward the north, the sandy 

 bed of the dry Santa Cruz runs nearly westward at the base of a series of rugged black 

 hills, rising from 300 to 500 feet above the plain. East of the hills, in the narrow strip of 

 plain between their base and the river-bed, Mr. Herbert Brown, editor of the Tucson 

 Star, showed us the remains of a large village. For nearly 2 miles we found pottery and 

 other artifacts scattered along the base of the mountains, not thick as a rule, but at frequent 

 intervals, as if houses had been located here and there along the edge of the cultivated 

 land, just as they seem to have been along the Cafiada del Oro and other dry stream-beds, 

 or as the houses of the modern Indians are to-day at San Xavier. In the center of the 

 village the pottery is thicker. Here we found a great boulder of andesitic lava ahnost 

 buried in alluvium, and studded with 24 round holes about 10 inches deep and 3 inches 

 in diameter. A similar block not far away contains 7 holes of the same sort. Long ago 

 the Hohokam women must have gathered here with their stone pestles, and gossiped as 

 they sat on the great rocks and pounded the corn, beans, or other seeds to make flour for 

 the daily bread of then- primitive husbands and sons. Not far away an eUiptical inclosure, 



