RANGE MANAGEMENT IN NEW MEXICO. 19 
and nothing but the selfish interest of the few who are getting the 
lion’s share under the present régime and the fear of the many that 
the last state might be worse than the first have for years prevented 
legislation. 
Advantage has been taken of various methods to obtain control 
and to divide up the range. Natural barriers, like mountains or 
impassable lava flows, have always been used. Until recently, areas 
without water have been natural barriers, but such areas are now 
very rare. The railroad rights of way have been fenced and now 
act as drift fences. Miles of drift fence have been constructed 
since a ruling of the Commissioner of the General Land Office was 
made, deciding that such fences might be allowed to stand, since 
they do not inclose Government lands. -The law allowing a county 
road to be fenced has resulted in the establishment of some very 
queer-looking county roads. All such fences and natural barriers 
have resulted in cutting up the country into large, more or less 
independent areas, and have given some individuals in favored locali- 
ties practically complete—though not legal—control of their ranges. 
Such individuals have little to obtain from any legalized system of 
control except the necessity of paying for what they now get for 
nothing. 3 
Individuals or corporations who have had the money necessary 
have bought leu-land scrip and placed it on compact bodies of land 
or have bought such of the Mexican land grants as they could obtain 
title to. For years most of these grants have been treated as the 
United States public lands; at first, because the grants had not been 
confirmed in the land courts. Later, since the titles were confirmed, 
it has been difficult to get the authority for the management of such 
lands delegated to any representative of the owners, because too 
many claimants had to be considered. Recently, some of these 
grants have been sold and fenced, and others are leased in severalty 
without fencing, much as the national forests are treated. 
Similarly, the lands given to the State and its institutions by 
Congress may be leased in large bodies. The practice of leasing the 
school section and fencing it for a pasture is a common one, and it is 
a not uncommon habit in places to rent a given school section and 
fence one or more sections that happen to be conveniently located, 
with, scant regard for the terms of the rental contract. Land 
inspectors come around at very rare intervals, and even then they 
do not know where the township and section corners are and can not 
demonstrate without an expensive survey that the area fenced is 
not the same as that leased. Hence, the fences stand and the fenced 
areas increase in number and in size. Sometimes State lands have 
been so located as to cover natural waters, like springs and streams 
