ABSTRACTS. 
A Coahuilan Hacienda. By J. C. Nagle, A. and M. College. Read be- 
fore the Texas Academy of Science, December 22, 1898. 
In this paper was given a description of some of the things observed 
by the writer during the summer of 1897, particularly such as relate to 
irrigation matters. 
The region considered lies at the bottom of an old lake basin in the 
so-called Laguna District, towards the southern part of the area formerly 
known as the Desert of the Bolson de Mapimi, and is entirely without 
outlet. Into it run the rivers having their sources in the surrounding 
mountains, of which the two largest are the Nazas and the Aguanaval. 
The former is about 300 miles long, while the latter is perhaps a little 
shorter. Water flows in the rivers only during the rainy season, and it 
is then diverted on to the low, flat lands of the Laguna for irrigation pur- 
poses. In the May, 1897, number of the Engineering Magazine, C. P. 
MacKie gives a detailed description of the methods of utilizing the wa- 
ters of the Nazas on the Tiahualila Hacienda, thirty miles from the river, 
but this is the only case in the district in which the irrigation system was 
laid out according to a well-arranged engineering plan. As the writer 
saw it done on the Aguanaval near Matamoros and Yiesca, the system 
was much more primitive. 
Intakes, which were nothing more than canals cut to the river’s bank, 
and called tomos , led the water into the tajos or main canals, that con- 
ducted it to the point of distribution, where it was diverted into service 
canals by temporary dams of brush and mud. From these service ditches 
it was admitted to the t alias upon which the crops were growing, and as 
the duration of flow was short, workmen labored .night and day inundat- 
ing (rather than irrigating) the tablas in turn. If a sufficient supply was 
available, a second inundation was given where most needed. A large 
amount of suspended matter deposited annually upon the land makes the 
apparently barren soil of unknown depth and richness, producing mag- 
nificent crops. Corn, wheat, barley, beans, cotton, etc., seem to be the 
crops most generally grown. 
Native cotton is replanted about once in five years as the stand grows 
thin, though isolated stalks fourteen years old and upwards were seen. 
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