feet grew east of the Cascades, with Ponderosa pine, Douglas and White fir, and Western larch the most important species.
Forests furnish the raw materials for Oregon's largest manuf acturies: lumber, shingles, pulp and paper, veneers, plywood, doors, masts, spars and square timbers, besides supplying the special woods used in cooperage plants and for the making of furniture, wooden boxes, automobile bodies, ladders, etc. In 1929 some 50,000 persons were employed in forest industries, or about 12 per cent of all gainfully occupied. An estimated 300,000 people, a large proportion classified as rural non-farm, are directly or indirectly dependent for their living on forest activities and industries. The 1929 value of products from Oregon's forest industries was $181,231,473, while these products provided about two-thirds of the out-going freight tonnage.
In 1937, according to figures of the State Fish Commission, 27,689,805 Ibs. of fish were taken from Oregon waters, of which 26,578,712 Ibs. were salmon, 522,620 shad, 472,121 smelt, 82,207 sturgeon and 24,145 Ibs. bass. Of the salmon more than 16,000,000 Ibs. were of the chinook variety, and the rest silversides, steelheads, bluebacks and chums. Of lesser commercial importance are cod, flounder, black snapper, tuna, crabs, clams, and oysters. The smelt were caught in the Columbia River, as were about 90 per cent of the salmon, while the remainder of the take came from bays and inlets of the Pacific Ocean and Oregon rivers emptying into them. The average yearly yield of Oregon fisheries (according to the U.S. Department of Commerce) is valued at some $2,500,000, while approximately 4,500 persons are employed in catching and handling the product.
Oregon (according to the State Department of Geology & Mineral Industries) produces in metals, gold, quicksilver, silver, copper, lead, zinc, and platinum, important in the order named, and in non-metals, stone, sand, gravel, cement, and clay, besides coal, diatomite, lime, pumice, and mineral waters. Production figures for 1938 were: metals $3,318,000; non-metals $5,500,000; total $8,818,000.
Production of metals in 1936, in detail, amounted to: gold $2,126,355; quicksilver $329,750; silver $65,880; copper $52,808; lead $7,268 ; zinc $6,100; platinum (estimated) $2,100; total $2,590,261.
Oregon is second only to California in the production of quicksilver. Baker County leads in gold production. Next in rank are Josephine, Douglas, Coos and Curry counties. Copper comes from Josephine County. Southwestern Oregon has several chromite properties.
In spite of predatory loss and the 68,612 hunting and fishing licenses
