vail with machinery in that not all of the equipment idled on enrolled 

 Soil Bank units could be attributed to the Program. A study of individual 

 units enrolled indicates that the net effect of the Program on tractor num- 

 bers was to free the equivalent of 12 new tractors for use by remaining 

 agricultural units. 



*o' 



Buildings on Enrolled Units 



A total of 67 units of the 120 whole unit cooperators had some kind of 

 farm buildings (Appendix Table 6). Some 38 buildings were barns 30 by 

 60 feet or larger. Many of the barns were in poor repair and bordered on 

 obsolescence. In order to appraise farm buildings, the following crude 

 guides were used: repairs made in the last 5 or 10 years; type of floor 

 material in the cow tieup portion of the barn. About 70 percent of the 

 farm buildings were found to have received no improvements in the stable 

 area to conform to modern technology. The measure of repairs made dur- 

 ing the last decade gives some indication as to the intentions of operators 

 with regard to future agricultural production using their building capacity. 

 About 30 percent of the buildings on units idled received some repairs 

 during the last 10 years and only 16 percent had any repairs completed 

 during the last 5 years. These measures are very crude but they do indi- 

 cate that most of these buildings did not meet current standards of efficient 

 operation and low-cost production of milk. 



Not all the whole units enrolled reported a dwelling. Only 80 homes 

 were reported on the 120 whole units. Of the 80 homes reported, 78 per 

 cent were used as year-round homes and 22 percent as part-time or sum- 

 mer residences. 



Labor on Enrolled Units 



Persons of all occupations were cooperators in the Soil Bank Program. 

 Besides farmers, local businessmen, ministers, doctors, undertakers, and 

 town administrators are included. Even though 120 whole units were en- 

 rolled, relatively few workers were released to the labor market. Among 

 the 26 commercial units enrolled, 10 operators had nonfarm jobs before 

 enrollment (Table 6). After enrollment in the Program, the net effect was 

 to increase the number of persons seeking nonfarm work by four. In an 

 area where nonfarm employment exceeds 10,000 persons, this amount of 

 labor released is negligible (Appendix Table 7). 



Summary of Resources Enrolled in the Soil Bank 



Several things are demonstrated by the preceding analysis of the re- 

 sources enrolled in the Program and the agricultural trends that have 

 characterized production in Coos County. First, forces other than the Soil 

 Bank have had equally as great and probably a greater impact on the use 

 of resources as has the Soil Bank. Second, many of the resources involved 

 on units enrolled in the Program are of relatively poor quality. Because of 

 this, one would expect the operators of these units to be ready to accept 

 a less intensive agricultural use or complete abandonment from agricultural 

 use. Third, many parcels of the land resource and its product, hay, re- 

 ceived little or no income before the Program. Land rents or payments for 

 hay were nominal or nonexistent for many of the smaller holdings that 



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