proximates 2 million acres, a part of which consists 
of old-growth stands held for timber speculation 
and not intended to be operated as part of the farm. 
The total saw-timber stand in farm woods is esti- 
mated at approximately 10 billion board feet. 
Each year forest products valued at about $5,000,- 
000 are removed from farm woods for sale or home 
use. 
Many farmers are employed part time in these 
neighboring logging operations and in sawmills 
and other wood-using industries. The periodicity 
of employment in the forest industries allows them 
ample time for farm work. No accurate data are 
available on the amount of employment thus fur- 
nished but it is conservatively estimated that 10 to 
20 percent get work of this kind. Many have only 
small farms and practice no more than a subsistence 
type of agriculture, but they are classified as farm- 
ers by the Bureau of the Census. 
The proximity of forests gives the farmers a 
readily available and cheap supply of fuel wood, 
fencing, building materials, boxes, and other forest 
products within a reasonable hauling distance, 
wherever their own woodlands fail to supply their 
needs. Even the Willamette Valley, the largest 
agricultural body in this region, is dotted with 
patches of forest. The low cost of these essential 
forest products partly offsets the disadvantage of 
remoteness from the large markets for agricultural 
goods. 
The forest resources of the region pay a large part 
of the local taxes. In many of the sparsely settled 
counties they are the principal source of revenue. 
Many roads used almost exclusively by farmers and 
many schools attended only by farm children are 
chiefly supported by the taxes on forest lands. 
Gerrymandering of school, road, and port-improve- 
ment tax districts to include bodies of inaccessible 
virgin timber is not an uncommon practice. Un- 
questionably forest resources have reduced the 
burden of taxation on farm property, especially 
since virgin forest lands make little demand on the 
public treasury for services. The expenditures of 
tax money for the benefit of forest properties are 
quite disproportionate to the revenues collected 
therefrom, in comparison with the expenditures for 
and revenues from farm property. 
The availability of cheap cut-over land and other 
raw land has been responsible for the establishment 
of many submarginal farms. Burrier (3) estimates 
that 5,000 to 6,000 farms in western Oregon are 
problem farms, submarginal as full-time self-sus- 
taining units, chiefly “‘stump”’ ranches and farms 
in “shoestring” valleys. In Oregon they constitute 
a serious land use problem. Except where continu- 
ous supplemental employment can be obtained, 
the farmers either abandon the farms or depend on 
public funds for support. These scattered farms 
in the forest zones unduly increase the cost of local 
government and greatly raise the fire hazard of 
adjoining forest land. Not only does the timber 
owner have to pay more for fire protection but the 
cost of road and school upkeep falls more heavily 
upon him. The migration of large-scale logging 
operations leaves in their wake stump ranchers in 
distress because of loss of their outside employment. 
Were sustained-yield management, instead of liqui- 
ation, the prevailing policy of private forest-land 
TaBLeE 28.—Stocking classification of cut-over lands in the Douglas-fir region 
Land 
Oregon lands cut over— 
Since beginning of 1920 
Washington lands cut over— 
Since wberinnin gyofal 920 eae ee een ee Pee ease 
ErIOTAL On O20 Bee enya ee een eee ee oh ae ce sceteecssss 
ETIOTRLO BLO 20 Rete eeee Hime eens sree od ee os ce ssa sa sestkee 
Well Medium Poorly 7 Ns Mote 
stocked stocked | stocked Nonstocked Total 
| | 
| 
Acres Acres | Acres Acres Acres 
86, 285 122, 237 | 208, 522 301, 998 719, 042 
238, 584 309, 550 | 127, 740 139, 698 815, 572 
| | 
324, 869 | 431, 787 336, 262 441, 696 1, 534, 614 
172, 919 244, 969 417, 889 | 605, 219 1, 440, 996 
654, 452 849, 120 | 350, 401 525, 817 | 2, 379, 790 
827, 371 | 1, 094, 089 | 768, 290 1, 131, 036 | 3, 820, 786 
| | == = 
1, 152, 240 1, 525, 876 1, 104, 552 1, 572, 732 | 5, 355, 400 
| 
