RANGE MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 37 



CHARACTER OF THE PRESENT OPPOSITION TO CONTROL. 



What are the interests opposed to legalized control of the range 

 country? There are at least two that are more or less actively 

 opposed to the idea. They are those owners who, by the nature of 

 their stock and the region they are in, are able to get a lion's share of 

 the benefits to be derived from the business, or they are those who, 

 by the particularly favorable location of the ranges they now occupy, 

 already have practical control and would only increase their expenses 

 by gaining a legalized control. There are only a few such owners in 

 New Mexico. But there are many who are afraid that any change 

 which might be made would result in loss to themselves. They want 

 control, but are passively obstructing any move tending toward 

 that end, because they fear that in any new adjustment they would 

 lose part or all of what they now claim. 



There is nothing to criticize in any of these attitudes, since they 

 are those of all competitive business. Each stockman is merely 

 getting all he can out of his business under the conditions in which 

 he finds himself, and he is warranted in so doing so long as he breaks 

 no existing laws. But would it not be much better business to get 

 some sort of legalized control system established which would do 

 away with the present uncertainties and losses and make a better 

 type of management possible ? 



The industry would be placed upon a much better footing. Its 

 returns would be much more certain and could be calculated in 

 advance with much greater accuracy. By virtue of this certainty 

 a more complex and more remunerative type of business could be 

 developed, which would result in an output both larger in quantity 

 and better in quality. Hence the business would be more remu- 

 nerative to those engaged in it and would improve the general business 

 status of the State. From the standpoint of the great majority of 

 the stockmen of New Mexico there is everything to gain and almost 

 nothing to lose by the establishment of a system which will allow 

 them to fence their lands and hold them in severalty, while from the 

 standpoint of the business the promise of improvement is slight, 

 if any (due mainly to the increased prices of the meat produced), 

 with all the factors tending toward a diminution of productivity so 

 long as the present form of tenure is the only one possible. 



SUMMARY. 



(1) The present status of the stock-raising industry in New Mexico 

 is but one phase of the adjustment of the various industries of the 

 State among themselves and to the physical environment. 



(2) The topographic, climatic, and soil characters of the State 

 restrict by far the greater part of its total area to the business of 

 stock raising so long as the present agricultural methods continue. 



