OUR CROPS 55 



holding soil, the levelling of the land in order 

 that water may not lie on it is of the first im- 

 portance. Here the Mexican is in his element. 

 With plough and scraper he accomplishes 

 unerringly a task which to the inexperienced 

 white man is beset with difficulties. By the 

 aid of his eye alone, unassisted by any 

 mechanical devices, he rapidly reduces un- 

 even land to the uniform level of a billiard- 

 table. Then with hoe supplementing plough 

 he divides his field into squares, each square 

 having its raised edge or ' border.' The 

 land is now prepared for irrigation. 



Many Americans irrigate before sowing, 

 and not again till the crop is well above 

 ground. Personally, I have had poor 

 success with that plan, and now do as the 

 natives do. The Mexican sows his seed 

 first, though it goes without saying that the 

 initiatory step to ploughing in a rainless 

 country must be irrigation ; then after the 

 land has dried off sufficiently the plough 

 follows. The Mexican, therefore, having 

 sown his seed, and made his ditch along one 

 or two sides of the prospective alfalfa meadow, 

 and through the centre also should the case 



