<div class="description">
<ul><li><b>Scope and content:</b>  Full caption reads as follows: El Cerrito, San Miguel County, New Mexico. Ewes and lambs in a corral in the village. The staple crops in El Cerrito are corn, beans and alfalfa. Almost everything is grown on irrigated land although there are a few fields on the mesa where a certain amount of dry farming is carried on. Most of the corn is of the native blue type which was first grown here by the Indians. Some of the other types of corn are fed to stock, but never the blue. Alfalfa produces more feed per acre than any other plant and for this reason more than half the irrigated land is devoted to this crop. There is little commercial farming in the village. A few sacks of beans or bushels of peaches are sold each year, and two families have small flocks of sheep which brings in a little money - but for the most part the emphasis here is on subsistence farming. Food is produced for home consumption. Even the livestock economy is at the subsistence level, with each family owning one or two horses, a cow or steer, eight or ten chickens and perhaps a pig. Money when there is any, comes from outside work. This is the dam in the Pecos where the main ditch or "madre acequia" takes off from the river. No one knows how long this irrigation system was set up. Some think that it was first built by the Indians who lived in the valley long before El Cerrito existed. The dam and ditch are the basis and heart of agriculture here. Without them there could be no crop. The dam itself is an impermanent affair and must be carefully repaired at regular intervals by the people of the village. The ditch, which begins here, follows the river but rises gradually until, at the village two miles below, it is many feet above the level of the river. The maintenance and care of the "madre acequia" and its tributaries is a communal affair carried out by a highly integrated and efficient organization under the direction of an electedmayordomo or ditch boss. Everyone taps the ditch when he needs water and takes as much as he needs.</li></ul></div>
<div class="fn value">
Irving Rusinow, Photographer (<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://research.archives.gov/person/5307166">NARA record: 5307166</a>)<br></div>
10 April 1941 - 16 April 1941
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._National_Archives_and_Records_Administration" class="extiw" title="en:U.S. National Archives and Records Administration">U.S. National Archives and Records Administration</a>