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<br />private purchasers and lessors. Contributing factors have been 'improper <br /> <br />land use, lack of credit facilities, and bad conditions of land tenture. <br /> <br />It is believed that some 45 of these families would be suitable for <br />resettlement into the proposed project area and that their removal <br />from Archuleta County would so relieve crowded conditions that opportun- <br />ities could be found for rehabilitation ofmaDT of the families that <br />would remain where they are. <br /> <br />. These Spanish American families are a pastoral people, indigenous to the <br /> <br /> <br />region for many generations. Theirs is the oldest European blood in the <br /> <br /> <br />southwest. They are efficient in the management of farm flocks and are <br /> <br /> <br />entirely capable of irrigation farming of prinoipal crops of hay, irrigated <br /> <br /> <br />and dr.y pasture, small grains, corn, beans, and garden crops for family <br /> <br /> <br />living; and with farm livestock, espeCially sheep, as the principal source <br /> <br /> <br />of cash income. <br /> <br />The County S~pervisor at Durango says of these farmers that they are agree- <br />able and cooperative under supervision and that in his estimation they <br />seem to realize their debt obligations even better than the average loan <br />clients of Anglo descent. <br /> <br />Beoause of their long developed adaptation to this environment, they h8.ve <br /> <br />a different farm eoonomw than recently settled "Anglos" and a somewhat <br /> <br />different, although not neoessarily a lower. standard of living. They <br /> <br />have long practiced their own methods of food preservation. ~hey are able <br /> <br />to make intensive use of grazing lands and small areas of dr,r farm land <br /> <br />in conneotion wIth their irrigated lands. <br />