Dicke, Robert J. (ed.) / Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters
volume XLIV (1955)
McCabe, Robert A.
The prehistoric engineer-farmers of Chihuahua, pp. 75-90 PDF (6.1 MB)
86 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters [Vol. 44 Agriculture in many parts of Mexico is still very primitive. Before the advent of the horse, which the Spaniards introduced, we can only surmise that the land was tilled by hand with crude wooden implements. Were the campesinos (farmers) many or few in the region of the abundant trincheras? The comparatively The check-dams or trincheras found in many places in northern Chihuahua were well built structures. The meadows behind these dams were usually grown to several species of bunch grass. (Photo by Aldo Leopold) meager evidence of permanent dwellings and the likelihood that the fertility in the thin volcanic soil would be dissipated after a few years of corn and bean agriculture indicate the farmers may have been few in number or partially nomadic in nature. A simple fallow rotation of many small fields, up and down a watershed could have insured better fertility and account for the
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