The impact of non-agricultural users was being felt, and those laws reflected accommodation to their demands. When New Mexico achieved statehood in 1912, it was possessed of a surface water code which would endure relatively unchanged, and which already had been partially interpreted. The territory had become aware of the necessity for conserving and had enacted a comprehensive law to protect its artesian basins. According to Brown and Ingram, the water rights system of the Southwest is complex. Although water use differs among different groups of rural people, there are some constants.
Agriculture is everywhere a primary consumptive user, though the type of agriculture varies.
The significance to rural people of the agriculture for which water is used is more than economic benefit. Agriculture is an important part of lifestyle that attaches people to a place and provides a link to the past. In The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols wrote about the water issue that is captured in many southwestern works. Nichols describes the life of a Hispanic community in northern New Mexico whose roots are deeply embedded in the region. The underdog, Joe Mondragon, has illegally tapped into the main irrigation channel to water the beanfield that has been in his family for decades.