MODKHN I'l Kin.OS. SI 



least, when tho Spanish first ontoi"(Ml the area. There 

 were liowever, no <i:reat (hffi('nhi(\-^ involved and no 

 large eanals liki^ tiie prehistoric onc^s of the lower Salt 

 River were necessary. The fields of the Aconia are 

 fourteen miles away at Aconiita, apparently where 

 they were when Espejo visited them in 1583. He 

 mentions both the cornfields two leagues aw^ay, 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 wdth 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 3'oung, the}^ are protected from the wind 

 and the drifting sand b}' windbreaks of brush or stone. 

 Irrigation is not practised except that \'egetables are 

 sometimes watered by hand. Ditches, however, are 

 provided to carry off the excessive w^aterfall during 

 heavy showers. 



Because of the large population of Zuni many of 

 their fields are at a great distance; the people move in 

 large numbers to the neighborhood of these fields where 

 the farming villages of Nutria, Pescado, and Ojo 

 Caliente are maintained. Mr. Frank H. Gushing has 

 described the old Zuni method of agriculture. A man 

 without land chose a piece of ground w^here a gulch 

 opened into a valley or on to the margin of the plain. 

 Across this he made an earthen dam w^hich retained 

 the water and mud brought dow^n during heavy rains. 



