Journal of the Southwest Mission Villages and Agrarian Patterns in a Nueva Vizcayan Heartland, 1600-1750 Author(s): Susan M. Deeds Source: Journal of the Southwest, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 345-365 Published by: Journal of the Southwest Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170027 Accessed: 05-08-2015 15:36 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/ info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Journal of the Southwest is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Southwest. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 150.135.239.97 on Wed, 05 Aug 2015 15:36:26 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Mission Villagesand Agrarian Patterns in a Nueva VizcayanHeartland, 1600-17 SO Susan M. Deeds At the turn of the seventeenth century, a Nueva Galician bishop undertook an extended inspection of the newly settled province of Nueva Vizcaya. In reports to the king, Alonso de la Mota y Escobar wrote enthusiastically about the agricultural potential of the well- watered valleys and rolling hills of the Sierra Madre's central plateau between Durango and Chihuahua.1 Despite the limitations of arid- ity, the alluvial flood plains and basin floors were suitable for wheat and maize cultivation with irrigation.