28 BULLETIN 211, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
It does no good then for Mr. A to say ‘‘I told you so,” and his only 
hope is that he can endure the losses longer than the new man and | 
that the latter will be forced to leave. 
There are only two other things that Mr. A can do. He may 
either buy the newcomer out and so get rid of him—a practice that 
sometimes induces men to dig wells to sell to established stockmen 
who have made money—or he may develop another watering place 
near the newcomer, thus restricting the latter’s range to a minimum, 
and wait for the dry years. Any way that the matter may now be 
adjusted ultimately results in a direct loss for both men (accompanied 
by great suffering by the stock), an indirect loss to the general business 
interests of the region, and a serious depreciation in the value of the 
range. 
An experienced and successful cattleman in the southern part of 
New Mexico, commenting to the writer on this state of affairs not 
long ago, said: 
I can better afford to take the $2,500 loss of stock which I know TI will have when 
the dry years come than to take my stock off my range and try to save the grass 
which I know I will need in those dry years. I hold my range now only by having 
my stock on it. If I take my stock off, someone else will take my range, and I can 
afford to lose the stock better than lose the range. : 
Every stockman using Government range lands is forced into this 
kind of action whether he be astute enough to have reasoned it out 
or not. Yet these same lands under a betterstype of management 
(possible only under legalized control) would carry safely all the time - 
more and better stock than they now carry with such uncertainty. 
Now the crux of the situation is expressed in the phrase “possible 
only under legalized control.’’ The mere fact that the stockman is 
not able to protect his range against willful misuse by himself is the 
best of evidence that the industry has reached the limit of its possible 
development under the system of management now in operation. 
The earlier growth of the industry occurred under a condition of 
what was practically unlimited free range and was satisfactory in 
most ways as long as this condition continued; but as soon as all 
the range land was occupied a new system became necessary, and 
this necessity has been seen by investigators and far-sighted stock- 
men for a long time. Before the industry can develop further it 
must become possible to determine how many animals may be put 
on agiven area. But control of such animals as cattle, horses, mules, 
and burros can be maintained only by fences. Under the present — 
system sheep and goats can be managed so as to prevent overstocking, 
but they rarely are. With a properly fenced range even they are 
better off, and the range is also. Let us assume that the right to 
fence the range lands in severalty has been obtained and consider 
the changes in management rendered possible thereby. 
