TREES AND SHRUBS 11 



THE RANCH HOUSE" 



What is the average ranch house in New Mexico like? 

 Think of those you know and judge whether each does not 

 belong to one of the following types : 



A "dobe" hut of one or two rooms, set out on a sun-blis- 

 tered flat where bulls paw up clouds of pungent dust, while 

 they bellow challenges at each other. Miles away through 

 quivering air dance the distorted outlines of the cool tim- 

 bered mountains. ^ 



A board shanty at the mouth of some canon on the edge 

 of a boulder strewn arroyo, with everything about it as incon- 

 veniently arranged as well can be. 



A one-roomed log cabin with a "lean-to," in a beautiful 

 mountain valley, but with every vestige of the native forest 

 cut away from around the house for fifty or. a hundred yards 

 on all sides. 



These are by no means the only kinds of ranch houses, 

 but they are by far the commonest. Are these conditions 

 necessary? It can hardly be claimed that they are satisfactory 

 or desirable. 



In the very nature of the case the great bulk of our State 

 must ever be devoted to stock raising. Enough' water falls 

 within its limits to properly irrigate only a relatively small 

 proportion of it, even if all that water were caught and hoarded 

 and applied to irrigation. Such a thing being impossible, 

 and the above statement being true of practically all the high 

 arid region in which New Mexico lies, we come back to our 

 first proposition : i. e. the necessity of stock raising. It is the 

 only kind of agricultural work possible on much of the unir- 

 rigated lands. 



It is also recognized that, under the present system of 

 handling stock, the State is losing a large part of the gain 



* As used here the expression "ranch house" is intended to apply merely 

 to the houses of stockmen which are not usually located in the irrigated 

 ▼alleys. The author understands that this is a restricted use of the ex- 

 pression which is not warranted by custom, but is here used for lack of a 

 better term 



