Long lots in New Mexico and Texas: The French connection, 1693--1731.

Abstract

Long lots are linear or rectangular agricultural fields, so configured to give access to water courses or roads. They exist in France and where French people settled in North America, primarily Quebec and Louisiana. They are rarely found in Spain or New Spain including Mexico; however, they came to exist among Spanish people on New Spain's northern frontier in New Mexico and Texas. My purpose is to marshal the historical evidence to show that long lots diffused from Frenchmen to New Mexico after 1693 and to San Antonio after 1731. Circumstantial evidence demonstrates that diffusion rather than independent invention provides the most likely explanation for the presence of long lots in early New Mexico and Texas.