The 27 percent of farms with less than 50 acres per farm contained but 1.1 percent of the total land area and harvested but 5.9 percent of the cropped acres in the upper basin. At the other extreme 14 percent of the farms had 75 percent of the total land and 36 percent of the harvested acres. Farmers of small tracts do not have enough land to make a living from livestock and in most instances water is insufficient to enlarge and intensify their farming operations. The small farmers in the area would benefit greatly from irrigation development. More intense farming through irrigation would develop small economic farm units.

TABLE XIII.-Farm land available in upper basin (1939)

Type of farm land available (average number of acres

per farm)

State area

Colorado

1, 699

New Mexico_.

farm

Value of farm property. The average value per in the upper basin as reported in the 1940 United States census was $7,805. This was about $1,000 more than the average for all farms in the United States. As compared with the average of all farms in the Nation the average basin farm has a little more invested in land, has less in buildings, and more than twice as much in livestock. Many of the livestock operators in the upper basin use land belonging to the Federal or State Governments in which they have little or no investment (fig. 4).

These statistics of farm income strikingly show the importance of the livestock industry in this region. The income per farm and per capita population is about 50 percent higher than the average for the entire United States. This is because livestock operations are conducted in large-scale units for greater efficiency, and the farm labor requirement is low. The total farm income per acre of crop land harvested was also higher than the average of the Nation, but the crop land income per acre was lower because of the relatively large acreage of livestock and grazing lands. Wyoming, where livestock raising is of greatest relative importance in the upper basin, is in marked contrast with New Mexico where farmers are dependent to a larger extent upon crops.

Farm tenancy. The upper basin in common with all of the Mountain States has relatively few tenant-operated farms (fig. 8). In 1940 there was slightly more than half as many tenant-operated farms in the upper basin as in the United States as a whole, mainly because livestock farming is not well adapted to a tenancy. The economic age of the upper basin also may be a contributing factor. The risks to the livestock farm owner are too great with tenancy. Most of the tenancy that does exist is in the nonlivestock types of farming.

Part-owner-operated farms are more common in this area than in the country as a whole. This has resulted from the frequent ownership by inheritance, homesteading, or unwise purchase of tracts too small for an economic unit. Because these cannot be economically operated independently they are often leased to livestock men to supplement their own holdings.

The most extensive and commercially most important mineral resources of the upper basin are coal, oil, and natural gas. The upper basin is the leading domestic source of vanadium, uranium, and radium ore, and also molybdenum. Zinc, lead, silver, and gold are commercially important. Metals of minor interest include copper, manganese, bismuth, and antimony. Among the nonmetallic or industrial minerals and rocks, gypsum, salt, and limestone are abundant and accessible but have not been developed extensively. Potash and magnesium deposits are possible future sources of supply. (See appendix, maps entitled "Mineral Resources, Colorado River Basin.")

The remoteness of large portions of the upper basin from established industrial and transportation centers has been responsible for the restricted character of industrial developments based on minerals and has also retarded intensive exploration for new mineral deposits. The important discoveries of carnotite ores and carnallite made during the war period are indicative of new developments that can be expected with continued intensive exploration. Recent success in an expanded oil drilling program is highly encouraging. Some of these mineral resources may not be developed to a large extent immediately, but with improved technological processes together with increased demands and the depletion of more economical sources of supply, the time may not be far away when large scale developments will take place in the upper basin.

total deposits. Coal reserves within the upper basin are roughly estimated at 400 billion tons.

The importance of these vast reserves is enhanced by the almost complete absence of any coal deposits in the States west of this region. The only exception of any consequence is the coal deposits of the State of Washington, but this coal is inferior in quality and more difficult to mine than the coals of the upper basin. Large quantities of coal from the upper basin are now shipped west, north, and sometimes east. These coals can be mined more cheaply than those in most other regions and may provide the basis for much of the future industrial development of the western part of the United States.

Mine entries above ground level are possible for a large portion of the deposits. Thick beds, ranging from 8 feet to a maximum of 90 feet and virtually horizontal, can be mined with comparative ease.

Bituminous coals from the upper basin are considered the highest quality bituminous coals on the western market. They are low in ash and moisture, extremely low in sulphur and highly volatile with a high heat value. Largest coal mines in the upper basin are in the Rock Springs and Kemmerer districts in Wyoming, served by the Union Pacific Railroad, and near Price, Utah, on the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad. Most of the coal mined in the Colorado area is bituminous but some good grade anthracite is mined in Gunnison County.

Coal production in the upper basin increased more than 50 percent in the period 1940-43. Part of the increase was in coking coals mined near Sunnyside, Utah, for new steel plants at Geneva, Utah, and Fontana, Calif. The new completely mechanized mine located near Sunnyside has a capacity to produce 8,000 tons of coking coal per day. Other important deposits of coking coal are located near Crested Butte, Durango, and Norwood, Colo. Coal in the Willow Creek area, Wyo., was found recently to be suitable for blending with other coal in the manufacture of metallurgical coke.

The increased coal production to meet war demands is indicative of future expansion in the industry, which no doubt will be accompanied by additional heavy investments in modern mining equipment. As coal is used more economically, especially through effective utilization