68 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Harry A. Lawton 



A SHADY LANE ON A HACIENDA IN SONORA 



Small farms are almost unknown in Mexico. The hacienda? are vast landed estates 

 embodying many features oi the medieval feudal system. Until a few years ago. the haciendas 

 were in the hands of o.ooo persons among a population of nearly 15.000.000. Some of these 

 estates extended over -core- of square miles and had as many as fifty miles of irrigation 

 ditches within their bounds. 



