THE PUEBLO DWELLERS. 77 
practised. In the great plains the chief dependence 
was upon the buffalo, while on the North Pacific Coast 
the people lived largely on fish. The inhabitants of 
the Plateau area lived upon wild vegetables, small 
game, and insects. The sedentary peoples of the 
Southwest placed their first reliance on the crops which 
their fields produced. These were in earlier times, corn, 
beans, and squash. Recently wheat and other small 
grains and vegetables have been added. Hunting 
was by no means neglected for flesh was needed to 
produce a balanced diet. The wild vegetables in the 
neighborhood were gathered and preserved for later 
use. 4 
Agriculture. The fields of the Rio Grande peoples 
are situated in the river bottoms and along the smaller 
streams near their villages. Irrigation is now practised 
and was being practised at many of the pueblos, at 
least when the Spanish first entered the area. There 
were, however, no great difficulties involved and no 
large canals like the prehistoric ones of the lower Salt 
River were necessary. The fields of the Acoma are 
fourteen miles away at Acomita and Pueblito, apparently 
where they were when Espejo visited them in 1583. He 
mentions both the cornfields two leagues away, and 
the river from which he says they watered them. 
The Hopi fields are situated near the mesas wherever 
there is sufficient moisture from some gulch or spring. 
Corn is planted ten or twelve inches deep with a plant- 
ing stick which makes a suitable hole. The corn is not 
raised in rows, but in large clumps of eight or ten stalks, 
at considerable distances from each other. While 
the plants are young, they are protected from the wind 
and the drifting sand by windbreaks of brush or stone. 
Irrigation is not practised except that vegetables are 
sometimes watered by hand. Ditches, however, are 
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