17,358,000 acres or 28.4 per cent of the state's entire land area, and with a collective value for land and buildings of $448,712,000. Of these farms, 17,206 were under 20 acres each in size, 30,498 were under 50 acres, 40,782 were under 100 acres, and 3,046 comprised 1,000 acres or more; the average acreage per farm being 267.8. In the combined farm area, about 3,100,000 acres were used for crops and about 12,000,000 acres consisted of pasture land. Of the total number of farms, 50,046 were operated by full or part owners, 715 by managers, and 14,065 by tenants. The total farm population numbered 248,767; and of the persons working on farms, family labor accounted for 83,102 and hired help for 15,287. Considerably more than 25,000 farm operators worked part time to pay off their farms during the year. Farms to the number of 29,740 or 45.9 per cent of the total, were carrying a combined mortgage debt of $119,670,000.
Although much sub-marginal land cultivated during boom years in the "high desert" of south central Oregon, and in the remote hill regions elsewhere, is now abandoned, the total acreage of land in farms increased 50 per cent in the quarter-century from 1910 to 1935 and more than 22 per cent in the decade of 1925-35. Yet the total value of land and buildings declined sharply—from $675,213,000 in 1920 and $630,828,000 in 1930 to $448,712,000 in 1935. The number of mortgaged farms decreased from 51.5 per cent of the total in 1930 to 45.9 per cent in 1935, with an accompanying decrease of nearly $2,500,000 in the total farm mortgage debt. The number of farms operated by tenants increased from 9,790 in 1930 to 14,065 in 1935; and in the latter year 21.7 per cent of the total number of farms and 17.1 per cent of all land in farms were under tenant operation.
Government irrigation projects in the Owyhee, Klamath, Umatilla, Vale, and three other districts have done much to increase the agricultural resources of Oregon. More than a million acres are now under irrigation in the state. Summer irrigation is rapidly supplementing normal winter rainfall in portions of the Willamette and Hood Rivet Valleys.
The State Agricultural College at Corvallis, founded 1868, has played a role of incalculable importance in Oregon's agricultural activities. Besides the specialized training given to thousands of young men and women, it conducts experimental farms in various parts of the state, maintains a radio broadcasting station, publishes numerous bulletins, and contributes in numerous other ways to the improvement of farming and the conditions of farm life in general. A state agricul
