EARLY IRRIGATION IN TEXAS

EDWIN P. ARNESON

Irrigation is the art of watering crops by artificial means. The
earliest known practice of this art in Texas took place in the
extreme western part of the state. In the present El Paso region
are irrigation ditches that were dug by the Indians, under the
direction of the Spanish padres as early as the latter half of the
seventeenth century. Many of these old canals can easily be
traced today. Near Ysleta, below El Paso, are several irrigation
systems, which were built by the Pueblo Indians after 1680, in
which year, as a result of the great Indian rebellion in New Mexico,
the Ysleta pueblos were located at the present Ysleta, Texas.
These irrigation systems have been used continuously since then.

However, the native Texas Indian was no empire builder, and as
an independent worker he was not a great factor in the permanent
conquering of the arid wilderness of Texas. The Spaniard was
destined to do that. And he was particularly fitted for the task.
The conquistadores, who exploited the Spanish Main, were, for
the most part, recruited from that central plateau of Spain, en-
deared to the readers of Don Quixote as "La Mancha." "La
Mancha" means the Blot. It is an extremely dry country which
is able to support its population only when the utmost care is exer-
cised in the conservation and use of the scanty rainfall. Respect
for water is bred in the bone of the Spaniard, and, while his pro-
fession may have been arms abroad, his occupation at home was
agriculture.

It is a far cry from the Mission canals and fields of San Antonio
to Cordoba, to Yemen, and to Bagdad. Yet, that retraces, roughly,
the steps by which the semi-arid vicinity of San Antonio became
a garden spot. The word acequia, which is constantly encoun-
tered in studying the mission period of Texas history, is an old
Arabic word, now good Spanish, meaning canal. Main Avenue
in San Antonio was once called Acequia Street. A number of
practices and customs employed in irrigation at present in West
Texas are traceable to Moorish sources. Through centuries of
contact the Spaniards acquired, to some extent, the Moors' remark-
able skill in husbandry and their almost perfect efficiency in the
diversion and distribution of water for irrigation.

Now, on the success of irrigation depended greatly the outcome
of the critical situation that the Spaniard faced in Texas in the
eighteenth century. Texas was a buffer state, an outlying prov-
ince, which lay across the path of France pursuing her designs on
the riches of Mexico. To combat this menace the policy of Spain
aimed at bringing about the strict exclusion of aliens, the estab-
lishment of military posts of defense, and the conversion of the
Indians into Christian allies. The Franciscan missionaries under-
took the last task.

In carrying out this policy of patrol and conversion the posts
and missions in Texas were to be supported from the far-off base
of Saltillo in Mexico. This long, uncertain line of communica-
tions was constantly being broken by hostile tribes, so it early be-
came apparent that, if the outposts were to be successfully main-
tained, they had to be made self-supporting. Accordingly, we find
documentary records of much shifting and moving about of posts
and missions in search of sites where they could support them-
selves through agriculture by irrigation.

In this search for water the provincial governors, under whose
authority settlements were made, customarily sent out engineers
to report on the feasibility of the projects under consideration and
to submit estimates of cost of building dams and acequias. The
authorities followed this procedure so closely that the availability
of water for irrigation governed the location of settlements even
in East Texas, where the rainfall was sufficient to assure crops.

Their projects were well distributed over the dryer portion of
the state. Mention has already been made of the irrigation sys-
tems along the Rio Grande below El Paso. These old canals
were dug by the Indians under the direction of the Spaniards, and
the three thousand acres that they watered became famous for
orchards and vineyards. The dam that took the water from the
river was a makeshift affair which was washed out annually by
May and June floods. An effort was made in 1754 to collect a
tax of fifty cents a hundred vines for building a permanent dam.
Although there were 250,000 vines in the valley the owners claimed
they were too poor to stand the assessment and the project fell
through.

The site of the Mission Rosario, about four miles upstream from
the present city of Goliad, was chosen for the possibilities it sup-
posedly offered for irrigation. In 1756 a report was made that
a dam of lime and stone, forty varas long and four varas high,
had been built across an arroyo and the digging of the canals was
under way. But, in 1768 Father Solis reported that, "the mission
has fields of crops which depend upon rainfall, for water can not
be got from the river since it has very high and steep banks, nor
from anywhere else, since there is no other place to get it from."

The Mission Espiritu Santo, during its sojourn on the Guada-
lupe River, also failed in its attempt in 1736 to build a dam across
that stream for diverting water for irrigation, and agriculture by
rainfall was employed with some success.

On the San Saba Eiver a mission was founded in 1757, but due
to Comanche depredations was abandoned in 1768. At some time
within these dates were built a dam and a canal. The latter
skirted the hills on the south side of the river one-half mile above
Menardville; the remains of the old canal are easily traceable today.

Two missions were founded in 1762 in the Nueces River Canyon;
one, Mission Candelaria, near the present town of Montel, the
other, San Lorenzo, some twelve miles upstream near Camp Wood.
Both had irrigation ditches fed by springs, according to Mr. G. K.
Chinn of Uvalde. He states that in 1870 the original masonry
headgates existed. He was told then by old residents that in the
early "forties" signs existed of the irrigated furrows, cultivated
by the missionaries about 1769. These missions were abandoned
after a short, precarious life.

Near Rockdale, on the San Gabriel River, the Mission San
Xavier was established in 1746. Pour years later construction
was begun on a dam and its accompanying canal. Vestiges of both
were found in recent years by Mr. Herbert E. Bolton in his search
for the site of the old mission.

It is in San Antonio and its vicinity, however, that we find the
best works of Spanish irrigation engineers in Texas. They seem
to have exhausted the possibilities of this region and at least one
of the seven enterprises undertaken, the San Pedro ditch, is a
model of intelligent canal location.

The oldest of the San Antonio canals was the Concepción, or
Pajalache, constructed in 1729. Its dam stood about five feet high
and had its site near the present Mill Bridge. The canal was in
about fifteen feet of cutting for a considerable distance before it
emerged near the surface of the ground. Its route approximately
ran along Garden and Roosevelt Streets, thence to the Concepción
Mission and its lands. This was the largest of the old acequias
and tradition has it that the padres used a boat for transportation
on its waters to and from the mission and for the work of main-
taining the canal. It was abandoned in 1869 after 140 years of
service.

The San Pedro ditch was commenced in 1738 to furnish water
for the Villa Capital de San Fernando as well as for irrigation.
It was some six feet wide and two feet deep, four miles long, and
irrigated about 400 acres of land. Its headgate was at San Pedro
Springs and its course was about that of North Flores Street, west
side of Main Plaza, and thence along the divide between the river
and San Pedro Creek. Its admirable location down this ridge
left it free from the cross-drainage that was a never-ending source
of trouble for the other ditches. The discerning engineer who con-
ceived the project saw the great advantage that this acequia would
possess in being able to water lands on both sides. All the other
San Antonio canals, for the greater part of their length, were dug
along the sides of hills or slopes, The San Pedro acequia, more-
over, is of romantic interest, in that it was the benevolent pro-
vider for the Canary Islanders, that small nucleus of people about
which the modern city of San Antonio has grown.

The Alamo Madre ditch was dug between the dates 1718 and
1744. It took water from the San Antonio Eiver above Bracken-
ridge Park, skirted along the hills of Eiver Avenue, eventually
crossing the Concepción ditch near South Alamo and Garden
Streets. Its length is placed at six miles and it irrigated 900
acres of land belonging to the Alamo Mission. When the East
Texas Missions at Los Adaes were abolished the converts were
brought to San Antonio and given plots of ground along the
Alamo Madre.

The Upper Labor acequia was started in 1776. Its headword
were also at the head of the river. From there it ran along Jones
Avenue, around Tobin Hill, crossing Main Avenue between Maple
and Camden Streets, and emptied into the San Pedro Creek at
Laurel Street. The Upper Labor canal commanded some 600
acres of land lying between the river and the San Pedro north of
Houston Street. This project was a civilian undertaking in which.
the missions had no interests.

The canal that watered the lands of the San José Mission was
built around 1730. Its diversion point was a short distance be-
low the mouth of the San Pedro Creek. For 130 years this ditch
served some 600 acres of land lying on the west side of the river.
The repeated washing out of the diversion dam led finally to the
abandonment of the entire project in 1860.

The San Juan Canal was dug in 1731 for irrigating the farms
of the Fourth Mission, about 500 acres in area. The ditch began
on the east side of the river opposite the San José ruins. This
canal is still in vigorous use.

The last acequia on the river below San Antonio is that which
furnished water for the Espada Mission lands and continues to do
so today. The canal is about five feet wide on the bottom, carries
ten second feet of water, is around three miles in length and cares
for 400 acres of land. The Espada ditch has its dam and head-
works near the upper end of the Mission Burial Park.

A study of the old Spanish ditches arouses an interest in how
and by whose hands they were made. The usual explanation of
their origin is to credit the labor to the Indians, working under
the direction of the Franciscan monks. It has been said that the
good friars made use of this method for teaching the neophytes
that not by faith alone but by works should they be saved.

When the mission on the San Gabriel River was about to be
launched, Fray Mariano, the guiding genius of that spiritual pro-
ject, wrote detailed instructions to his subordinates as to how the
irrigating ditch and dam should be constructed. Fray Mariano
had lived at the San Antonio missions as their president for the
twenty years previous and it was during his regime there that
most of the mission canals were dug. Consequently, his instruc-
tions for the San Xavier work represent the result of his great
experience in similar undertakings and cast a light on the methods
employed at San Antonio. The following is quoted from Bolton's
"Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century":

It was of first importance to open the irrigating ditches, in
order, even in case of drought, to assure each Indian of a full
stomach, 'which,' he said, 'is the God to whom these miserable
ceatures pay the tribute of their hardest labor.' With a view to
determining the location and course of the ditch he several times
cammed the river, and concluded that the best opportunity for
opening a channel was through the arroyo near the garrison called
by him San Francisco, since the arroyo itself would serve for a
goodly portion of the ditch, which could be continued easily
trough the fields of Mission Candelaria to the neighborhood of
ill three pueblos. This one ditch, he concluded, would serve for
all the missions, since it could be made to irrigate a stretch of
untimbered land more than a league in length and half a league
in breadth.

"On October 12 he formally made known his plans to the mis-
sionaries, reminding them that since all were of one brotherhood
and were working towards the same end, they should not object
to the common use of a single irrigating plant. This done, he
proceeded to order the ministers to be prepared to assist in the
work on the fifteenth, each mission providing as many yokes of
oxen as it might have, seven bars, fifteen picks, four axes, and
one cauldron. In excess of the regular rations, which would be
continued, each mission was asked to provide each week during
the continuance of the work, a tierce, or half a mule load, of salt,
six bulls for slaughter, two handfuls of tobacco, and whatever
else was possible. Fray Mariano promised to provide for distribu-
tion each day a fanega, or two hundred pounds, of hominy. All
of the ladinos, or instructed Indians, must be sure to be on hand,
to assist in giving instruction to the bozales or untrained neophytes.
Since Fray Mariano had many other duties to attend to, both at
San Xavier and at San Antonio, he appointed Father Ganzabal,
superintendent of the work, with the duty of assigning the tasks
and taking care of the tools and supplies.. To the order formal
obedience was given on the same day by Fathers Ganzabal, of Mis-
sion San Ildefonso, Joseph Anda y Altamirano, of Mission San
Xavier, and Acisclos Valverde and Bartolme Garcia, of Mission
Candelaria. Father Ganzabal, in giving obedience, called Fray
Mariano's attention to the fact that though his mission was still
without Indians, yet they might return, and he ought to be present
in such an event to receive them.

"With this preface, Fray Mariano asked that one soldier be
charged during the work on the ditch, with caring for the tools,
and another with looking after the oxen sent to work on the ditch
and to haul stone for the dam. Cerda was asked to give orders
that the horses of the Indians he kept under guard so that the
Indians could not flee or wander away, taking care that no soldier
be allowed to mount the horses and thus anger the Indians; to
send to each mission daily 'enough soldiers to cause respect,' and
to set the Indians at work at the proper time and keep them at it.
The missionaries, he said, would provide all the attractions pos-
sible in the way of extra food, but coercion must be left to the
soldiers, 'since for the missionary fathers to assume the task would
be to make themselves odious to the Indians, which is a serious
impediment to their receiving the faith, and, besides, few would
go, and there is risk that they would lose respect, because of their
bad instruction up to the present.' Cerda was asked to give orders
that the soldiers keep guard by night to prevent nocturnal flights.
When buffalo should appear in sight, soldiers must go with the
Indians to pursue them, to insure the return of the Indians.
Finally, the soldiers must be required to instruct the Indians in
their work."

Such was the construction program of 1750.

Twenty-six years later we find a different system for canal build-
ing, as applied in the digging of the Upper Labor ditch. At that
time some citizens of Bexar wished to develop the land lying be-
tween the San Antonio River and the San Pedro Creek by bring-
ing a canal along a route already described, and besought the
provincial governor for the right so to do. After recognizing the
prior rights of the missions and finding, upon investigation, that
there was water to spare he issued an ordinance directing how the
work should proceed. All who were interested were ordered to
bring tools and help in the labor under the superintendence of an
experienced canal builder. This individual was to be elected by
the shareholders of the venture. Width and depth of ditch were
specified, masonry gates were stipulated and other recommenda-
tions were made. After considerable delay, due to litigation and
other causes, the canal was at last ready for the delivery of water.
Whereupon the irrigable land was distributed among the share-
holders. This was done by the drawing of lots, as specified by law.

Ordinarily the land under irrigation was divided into units or
lots of such sizes that each could be watered in one day when
using the entire flow of the acequia for that time. The land units
were given numbers and a drawing took place among the rightful
applicants. The resulting award of chance was called a "suerte,"
meaning luck, and the land units themselves thereby became known
as "suertes." They varied in area, depending upon the capacity
of the ditch and the topography of the farms. Authorized inspec-
tors studied each irrigable tract and determined what size it should
be in order to fit the amount of water deliverable. Many old deeds
warrant title to one day of water and its corresponding land. This
system of distribution of water and land is of Moorish origin.
The Moorish water masters made the determination of the duty of
water a fine art and had as many as 225 different classifications
for plots of land or quantity of water, varying by degrees of soil
fertility, topographic slope, crop suitability, etc. It is believed
that relics of such classifying terms exist among the Mexicans of
today who refer to definite areas of land or quantities of water
when they say, surco de agua, buey de agua, naranja de agua,
manzana de agua.

When the crown granted irrigable lands, to settlers it demanded,
as a consideration, that each owner should agree to keep clean and
in good repair his section of the ditch, sluices, gates, and should
keep always in readiness one horse with arms and ammunition to
repel the enemies of the king. An interesting ceremony took place
when the "suerte" holder received his farm. The governor, or
his deputy, took the new settler by the hand and led him about
the plot of ground he was to be granted and caused him to pull
up weeds and stones and throw them to the four winds. By so
doing the new owner was taking actual possession before witnesses
and was performing acts that only a rightful owner could legally
do. Penalties were provided for such misdemeanors as fouling or
obstructing the ditches, stealing water or the taking of it out of
turn.

No records are known to the writer that describe the actual
staking out of the ditches on the ground. Tradition says that for
leveling and ascertaining the grades of canals, the monks used a
frame in the shape of an equilateral triangle, with a plumb line
hanging from the apex. The grade of the Espada ditch is re-
ported by A. Y. Walton as having been 18 inches to the mile.
Those who laid out the acequias appear to have been slaves to the
grade contour, for in many places no reasons are clear today why
the location should not have cut through a ridge instead of going
the long way round a hill. The levees, which form the banks of
the canals, strike one as being unnecessarily high and steep. This
is explained by the fact that, every spring when the ditches were
cleaned out, the Mexican farmers followed the practice of tossing
the accumulated silt out upon the canal banks, thus causing them
each year to increase in height. The tools used for removing the
silt were paddle-like shovels made of walnut. This material was
chosen for the ease with which the sticky mud left the surface of
the paddle.

The dams of the better type were of mortar and stone, but more
often they were of loose rock and brush construction, which, in
most cases, necessitated constant repair. The diversion dam for
the Espada ditch was built of flag stones laid one on the other
and having for foundation a natural stone ledge. The lime salts,
carried by the water, have been deposited to such extent that the
crevices among the stones have been filled and a solid dam exists
today.

The Espada ditch has another noteworthy structure in its stone
aqueduct. The exact date of its construction is not known, but
it was probably built at the time of the ditch. The aqueduct
crosses an arroyo with two arches of solid masonry. The middle
pier is almost as wide as the span of an arch, which is about twelve
feet. This great thickness of pier suggests the old Eoman rule
of making the width, or thickness, of piers one-third the arch
span. The aqueduct is well worth visiting. It presents a ven-
erable appearance and has withstood many a flood in the arroyo,
some of which have topped the structure as much as six feet.
There are legends current among the residents of the vicinity that
explain the excellence of the masonry by saying that into the mor-
tar were mixed the whites of thousands of eggs and much goat
milk.

The crossing of canals over small gulleys, or over other canals,
was usually accomplished by the use of canoas. These were hol-
lowed out logs, as the name suggests, through which the water
flowed.

Small water courses, carrying storm waters, were frequently
allowed to empty directly into the canal. When this was done,
however, a masonry wall, or wasteway, was provided in the lower
bank of sufficient size to permit all the storm water to spill over
at that point, thereby not endangering the canal with wholesale
washouts.

The water-wheel was another irrigating device which, in its
multiplicity, added to the picturesqueness of San Antonio in the
old days. These wheels were installed in the canals themselves.
They were of the undershot kind and had trough-like buckets fixed
at intervals around the periphery. The energy of the water flow-
ing in the acequia was utilized to turn these wheels, and so to lift
water for irrigating plots of ground lying higher than the canal
itself. Here again we detect the hand of the Moors. For, it
was that people who had originally appropriated the old Persian
wheel with rows of jars on its circumference and had taught its
use to the Spaniards,

About 1790 the missions of San Antonio were secularized. The
spiritual guardianship of the community was entrusted to the
parish church at Bexar; the canals and the farms they watered
became the property of the converted Indians and the settlers;
while the missions fell into ruins. The canals of the old padres
have now nearly all disappeared, but, where the encroachments
of modern times have not entirely obliterated them, we still find,
here and there, two parallel mounds of earth tracing the course of
the earliest furrows of civilization in Texas.

We see that the original policy of Imperial Spain with respect
to Texas practically failed. The noble efforts of the Franciscans
to convert the Indians to the faith, having been always attended
by great discouragements, ended at last in dismal failure. But
not so their enterprises in irrigation, for the net result of their
agricultural engineering can be called a success. The missionaries
solved the problem of surviving in the arid Southwest by digging
their acequias. That problem is fundamentally the same today.
The Spanish pioneers, two centuries ago, pointed the only way by
which Southwest Texas may hope to become a populous land.

How to cite:
Edwin P. Arneson, "Early Irrigation in Texas", Volume 25, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v025/n2/contrib_DIVL1538.html
[Accessed Thu Dec 4 12:24:42 CST 2008]