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<br />Ol.l'LG~'- <br /> <br />:!.f1i"%:">: <br />.~,lt,,','i" <br />'f.i~".,.:~1 <br /> <br />maize and beans and squash near springs and,upon the flood plains <br />of the rivers - if on moderate scale, Relics of these primitive <br /> <br />irrigation systems still endure near Fort Stockton, Texas, <br /> <br />Spanish colonization of what is now the Upper Pecos Valley <br /> <br />began about 1594 when Spanish settl,ers ventured from the Rio <br />Grande Valley at first taking up farms near the declining Cicuye <br /> <br />Pueblo and utilizing ditches dug by the Indians centuries <br /> <br />earlier, Except in rich mining areas, such as in some parts of <br /> <br />Mexico, the Spanish scheme of colonization was founded upon <br /> <br />agriculture, And since precipitation was limited throughout most <br />of Spain's North American provinces, agriculture depended upon <br /> <br />irrigation, <br /> <br />As a result, the community acequia (irrigation <br /> <br />!~\\~~ ' <br /> <br />ditch) was one of the most important institutions in the early <br /> <br />colonies, just as it is in most Spanish-American farming <br /> <br />communities in New Mexico today, <br /> <br />Development proceeded slowly and Spanish settlements were <br /> <br />contained within the arc of the river between Pecos village and <br /> <br />Anton Chico, in the Upper Pecos Valley, largely as a result of <br /> <br />nomadic Indian hostility and revolut~on. <br /> <br />By 1835, a permanent <br /> <br />colony was established on the Baca grant at Vegas Grandes or Las <br />Vegas, By and large, however spanish-Mexican colonization of the <br />Pecos Valley had been at a standstill since about 1820, and full <br /> <br />development of the area's potential natural wealth awaited the <br /> <br />coming of the better-armed, better-tooled and better-organized <br />(if not wealthier) AnglO-American settler, <br /> <br />13 <br />