RANGE MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 19 



and nothing but the selfish interest of the few who are getting the 

 lion's share under the present regime and the fear of the many that 

 the last state might be worse than the first have for years prevented 

 legislation. 



Advantage has been taken of various methods to obtain control 

 and to divide up the range. Natural barriers, like mountains or 

 impassable lava flows, have always been used. Until recently, areas 

 without water have been natural barriers, but such areas are now 

 very rare. The railroad rights of way have been fenced and now 

 act as drift fences. Miles of drift fence have been constructed 

 since a ruling of the Commissioner of the General Land Office was 

 made, deciding that such fences might be allowed to stand, since 

 they do not inclose Government lands. The law allowing a county 

 road to be fenced has resulted in the establishment of some very 

 queer-looking county roads. All such fences and natural barriers 

 have resulted in cutting up the country into large, more or less 

 independent areas, and have given some individuals in favored locali- 

 ties practically complete — though not legal — control of their ranges. 

 Such individuals have little to obtain from any legalized system of 

 control except the necessity of paying for what they now get for 

 nothing. 



Individuals or corporations who have had the money necessary 

 have bought lieu-land scrip and placed it on compact bodies of land 

 or have bought such of the Mexican land grants as they could obtain 

 title to. For years most of these grants have been treated as the 

 United States public lands; at first, because the grants had not been 

 confirmed in the land courts. Later, since the titles were confirmed,, 

 it has been difficult to get the authority for the management of such 

 lands delegated to any representative of the owners, because too 

 many claimants had to be considered. Recently, some of these 

 grants have been sold and fenced, and others are leased in severalty 

 without fencing, much as the national forests are treated. 



Similarly, the lands given to the State and its institutions by 

 Congress may be leased in large bodies. The practice of leasing the 

 school section and fencing it for a pasture is a common one, and it is 

 a not uncommon habit in places to rent a given school section and 

 fence one or more sections that happen to be conveniently located, 

 with scant regard for the terms of the rental contract. Land 

 inspectors come around at very rare intervals, and even then they 

 do not know where the township and section corners are and can not 

 demonstrate without an expensive survey that the area fenced is 

 not the same as that leased. Hence, the fences stand and the fenced 

 areas increase in number and in size. Sometimes State lands have 

 been so located as to cover natural waters, like springs and streams 



