Page:Wood - Foods of the Foreign-Born.djvu/22

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MEXICANS

Mexicans have settled in some of the best fields of California, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Idaho.

They are not a people who love academic work, but they enjoy any educational training which develops the use of their hands. Their interest lies largely in music, flowers, and the arts.

Mexicans who live in the rural sections, on farms or ranches, are not naturally migratory. They remain in the same locality or in the same communities more permanently than any other nationality. They are especially desired where irrigation farming is necessary, because they are very skillful at this kind of farming, many of them having been well trained in old Mexico. Most of them live in houses on the farms and pay a per acre rent, although there are some who pay a percentage of the grains.

Many live in the smaller villages, leaving their families there and going to work by the day on ranches. This bears a definite likeness to the French system. They live in groups, going out to work small sections during the day and returning to the village at night. They pay rent for their small houses in the villages, although some own the small tracts of land on which they live; and the men and the older sons take care of these, or leave them to the care of their wives while they themselves work by the day on larger ranches in the neighborhood. To look at their homes, one would think that they were decidedly unsanitary. This is not necessarily so, but depends almost entirely upon the water supply. Most of the water comes

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