CROP LANDS, FARMS, AND WEEDS

CROP LANDS, FARMS, AND WEEDS

A logged-off area occasionally used as a pasture, and which is a part of a single unit of farming property, is "crop land."

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                                                              September 12, 1951

Honorable Ralph G. Swanson
Prosecuting Attorney
Thurston County
Olympia, Washington                                                                                                              Cite as:  AGO 51-53 No. 126

Attention:  Mr. Hewitt Henry

Dear Sir:

            Section 5, chapter 194, Laws of 1937, (Rem. Rev. Stat. § 2778-15, Supp.) authorizes a county, in certain instances, to eradicate noxious or poison weeds growing or standing on "crop land."  You have asked whether a logged-off area, which on occasion is used as a pasture, and which is a part of a single unit of farming property, falls within the purview of this statute?

            We are of the opinion that it does.

                                                                     ANALYSIS

            Section 1 (c), chapter 194, supra, (§ 2778-11 (c), supra) reads:

            "'Crop Land' means lands devoted to the usual cultivated crops in the area and including orchards, small fruits, hay meadows, and rotation pastures, and including lanes, fence rows, irrigation and drainage ditches, and farmsteads, included therein."

            According to Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, a "farmstead" is "a farm."

             [[Orig. Op. Page 2]]

            InPorter v. Yakima County, 77 Wash. 299, 137 Pac. 466, our court held a tract of land devoted to sheep breeding, grazing, shearing, and lambing to be as much a farm as a tract devoted to the growing of grain.  At 77 Wash. 302 appears:

            "In short, a tract may be a farm without the aid of a plow."

            And inState ex rel. Wahluke v. Superior Court, 168 Wash. 142, 10 P. (2d) 986, the court held grazing land to be "a farm" because it was part of a single unit of farming property.

            We, therefore, conclude that the logged-off area in question is encompassed within the term "crop land" as used in section 5, supra, for:

            (1) It is occasionally used as a pasture, and

            (2) It is but a part of the whole farm.

Very truly yours,

SMITH TROY
Attorney General

ROBERT A. COMFORT
Assistant Attorney General