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Fruit, Fiber, And Fire: A Cultural History Of Modern Agriculture In New Mexico, William R. Carleton

History ETDs

In New Mexico, no crops have defined the people and their landscape in the industrial era more than apples, cotton, and chile peppers. They illustrate, more than any other three crops in twentieth-century New Mexico, how agriculture has spurred migrations of plants and people, and in turn, shaped the culture of the place. The physical origins, the shifting cultural meanings, and the environmental and market requirements of these three iconic plants all broadly point to the convergence in New Mexico of diverse regional attitudes toward industry in agriculture. These three crops, all industrialized at different times in the twentieth century …