88 THE PIMA INDIAKS [eth. axn. 26 



to the suppl}'ing canal, and are always fenced with some care (pi. 

 XI, fl). Before the Pimas obtained barbed wire from the Government 

 the fences were of willow wattling or the tops of mesquite trees and 

 various kinds of brush. Wlien a tract was newly brought under irri- 

 gation a committee of six men was chosen to make allotments to 

 those who hatl assisted in digging the ditches. They chose the best 

 land for themselves, which seems to have been taken as a matter of 

 course, in a measure compensating for their trouble. The plots were 

 from 100 to 200 "steps" (see p. 93) in width, according to the number 

 in the family to whom they were allotted. The brush was not diffi- 

 cult to remove even with the primitive implements at their command; 

 the mesquite trees were not cut down, but their lower branches were 

 trimmed so that they did not shade the ground to any considerable 

 extent. 



The canals were dug with the digging stick and shovel (fig. 10, 

 a, b), the former being also used to prepare the easily pulverized 

 ground and to plant the seed. In addition to the digging stick and 

 shovel the pi'imitive agriculturists also used a wooden imj)lement 

 which served the purpose of a hoe, though it resembled a weaver's 

 batten in appearance (fig. 10, c). In comparatively recent times the 

 wooden plow (fig. 11) was added to the list of implements. From 

 the Mexicans they also obtained a hybrid implement (fig. 10, d) that 

 combined the functions of spade and hoe. At the present time the 

 tribe is supplied with modern agricultural implements by the Gov- 

 ernment. The crops, however, are stored in much the same way 

 that was followed in prehistoric times, in circular bins of willow, 

 arrow bush, and wheat straw, the last having been used since the 

 introduction of wheat. 



One of the Pima villages (pi. xi, h) situated southwest of the Mari- 

 copa wells was too far from the river to obtain water from it and 

 depended, as do their kinsfolk and neighbors, the Kwahadk's, alreadj' 

 referred to, on flood irrigation. To secure the benefit of tlus, they 

 cleared fields on mesa slopes, over which water from the surround- 

 ing hiUs might be conducted whenever there were summer rains. 

 Ai'ound the lower sides of the diminutive fields low dikes were raised 

 to catch and retain the water. On the slopes of the San tan hiUs north 

 of the present Pima village of Santan there are several hundred acres 

 of stony mesa that have been cleared and cultivated (pi. iv, a, h). The 

 rocks have been gathered in rows that inclose rectangular areas of but 

 a few scjuare yards in extent. There are about six clumps of creosote 

 bush inclosed in it." This locality adjoins a large ancient canal and 



a At various places in the Southwest the writer has seen extensive areas over which the loose bowlders 

 thiit were originally thickly scattered on the surface had been gathered in rounded heaps or in rows 

 that divided the ground into rectangles that average about 5 meters to the side. The largest of these 

 '• fields " personally inspected is north of the town of Pima, nearly 200 miles cast of the Pima rescr\-a- 

 tion. On a lava-strewn mesa that is too high to be irrigated and too far from the hills to be flooded 



