KANGE MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 27 



With sheep there is the continual round of driving to the feeding 

 grounds in the day and back to the bed grounds at night, with a trip 

 to water- every few days, depending upon the kind of feed and amount 

 of water available. The camping place must be changed at frequent 

 intervals, and there is the eternal hunt for good feed. There must 

 be persistent care to prevent the splitting of the herd or losing a 

 bunch of stragglers, and to keep predatory animals out of the flock; 

 and in the spring comes lambing, shearing, and dipping, though in 

 some places shearing is done twice and dipping may also have to be 

 repeated. Most of such work must be done on foot and always in the 

 open, whatever the weather. 



When the dry seasons come there is work for all and a hard time 

 for the animals. Though all the stockmen know that the dry seasons 

 will surely come, there is at present little chance of making any 

 preparation for them. 



The ideal toward which the individual stockman must always 

 strive is to manage the factors under his control so as to produce 

 upon his range the largest and most valuable crop of forage that it is 

 able to maintain season after season under use, and the adjustment 

 of the proper number of animals to the ranch needs excellent judg- 

 ment in order to get the best returns. In the opinion of the writer, 

 considerable of the overstocking now done on controlled ranges is 

 due to a lack of accurate knowledge of their carrying capacity, which 

 results in poor judgment in making the adjustment mentioned. 



Everybody knows in a general way that there are already too many 

 animals on the range under the present form of management. Many 

 of the more thoughtful stockmen know that it would pay them to 

 reduce the number of stock on their ranches and give the grass a 

 chance to grow, but there are always new men coming into any range 

 country who do not know the rate of feed production of the region. 

 Such men recognize the possibility of developing water in favorable 

 positions, and if they find grass in any quantity which is apparently 

 not being used, they think they have found the place they are looking 

 for. If Mr. A, who has been in possession of that region for maybe 

 twenty years and who does know what the region will carry, com- 

 plains to the newcomer that the latter is crowding in where there is no 

 place for his stock, Mr. A has absolutely no means of convincing the 

 new arrival of either his knowledge or his sincerity. 



The land is all open to entry. The new man can take up a claim 

 and develop the necessary water and turn his stock on the open 

 range, and no one can prevent him. Nor can anyone either protect 

 Mr. A in his claims or insist that only so much stock shall run on a 

 given area. If the seasons are good for a year or so:, the range may 

 carry the additional stock, and the newcomer is sure he was right, 

 but when the dry years come both men are bound to lose heavily. 



