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RANGE MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 837 
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 eaetry 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 init 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-raismg 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. 
