PROGRESS OF LAND CLASSIFICATION IN NAT'L FORESTS 15 



mote gulch where he has found perhaps 100 acres that could 

 be farmed if cleared of its timber, he has been inclined to think 

 that, although the place may be ten miles from the nearest 

 house, he is no worse off in that respect than his father or 

 grandfather was when he settled on river bottom land along the 

 Missouri. He overlooks the fact that his father's or grand- 

 father's place was surrounded by equally suitable farm land 

 extending for miles in practically every direction, so that the 

 isolation of pioneer life was only an incident of his younger 

 manhood, and that settlement followed rapidly, resulting in 

 community development and the establishment of the commun- 

 ity institutions which are usually incident to civilized life, such 

 as roads, schools, churches, physicians, newspapers, mercantile 

 establishments, etc. Such community development cannot fol- 

 low the settler into the hills, because no power can push back 

 the mountains no matter how desirable it may be to replace 

 them with farms. Consequently the landseeker is at last begin- 

 ning to realize that in anticipating pioneer conditions the most 

 important consideration is whether those conditions are prob- 

 ably only transitory or whether topography makes them perma- 

 nent. A full realization of the importance of community insti- 

 tutions and their influence on farm values has resulted in very 

 much liberalizing the application of classification principles as 

 applied to land adjacent to or intermingled with established 

 growing rural communities. It is realized that such land may 

 be very desirable for individual use in connection with estab- 

 lished farms, although land exactly similar in character, sit- 

 uated at a distance from farm development, and not inter- 

 mingled with more valuable farming land, may be practically 

 valueless for farm use. The proper appreciation of the import- 

 ance of community influence has, in consequence, resulted in 

 the elimination of many small areas of National Forest land 

 having relatively low value for either farm or forest purposes, 

 but so located that their logical highest use was use under pri- 

 vate ownership in connection with other farming activities. 

 Conversely, it has resulted in retaining for forest purposes 

 small patches of land topographically suited for farm purposes, 

 but so located as to be of no real economic value for that pur- 

 pose on account of permanent isolation, while at the same 



