Agriculture in the prehistoric Southwest
After the Hohokam disappeared, Spanish explorers of the 16th century noted the use of canal irrigation in only two areas of the Southwest: eastern Sonora, primarily practiced by the Opata and Lower Pima, and among the Pueblos of northern New Mexico. Irrigation by the Opata and Pueblos had different objectives. In Sonora, with a long growing season, two crops of maize a year were grown in river valleys. The spring crop during the dry season was dependent upon irrigation; the summer and fall crop during the rainy season utilized irrigation to supplement rainfall. The necessity of irrigation probably required a high level of social organization. In New Mexico, with only one crop of maize per year possible, irrigation was supplemental and the lesser dependence on irrigation implies less social organization than in Sonora.
Ciudad Victoria
The river that crossed the settlement is the so-called San Marcos, which has an irrigation ditch, whose abundance of water gave the population all the irrigation it needs for the subsistence of its inhabitants, irrigation of plots and other sowing of corn, fostering also the cultivation of the cane. The quality of the land was adequate for all fruits typical of the region and facilitated the breeding and conservation of livestock.