REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 17 



contemplates the free distribution of the wheat, or preferably flour, 

 by the purchasing government and the amount thus sold would bt» 

 taken out of the competing market. 



The existing tariff has given a substantial measure of protection 

 to the growers of certain varieties of wheat but not sufficient to 

 make good the difference in cost of production and marketing here 

 and in some competing countries when all factors are considered. 

 Any effort which has the effect of advancing wheat prices at home 

 must be supported by an advance in the tariff on wheat. A study 

 of the conditions which influence the cost of wheat production in 

 the United States and Canada has already been submitted to you. 



The organization of wheat growers into a successful powerful 

 cooperative marketing association might enable them to control the 

 flow of wheat to market more effectively and to reduce marketing 

 costs. It ought to be possible, although admittedly difficult, to 

 adapt to wheat marketing the methods which have proved successful 

 in the marketing of many other farm products. But the amalgama- 

 tion of the many existing associations into one powerful body and 

 bringing into it the large number still unorganized is the work of 

 years. Even if it were done now, the fundamental difficulties of 

 the wheat grower right now are too deep-seated to be eliminated by 

 such an organization. 



The proposal, which has been advanced and considered from time 

 to time for two years past, to set up a Government agency with 

 broad powers to buy and export wheat and other agricultural com- 

 modities of which we produce a large exportable surplus, is in my 

 judgment one of the proposals which like several others is worthy 

 of renewed consideration at the present time. The objective to be 

 attained is to secure for wheat and other agricultural products an 

 exchange value approximately equal to what it was before the war. 

 As has been said often, one of the chief causes of the agricultural 

 depression is that farm commodities are relatively far cheaper than 

 before the war. The price of wheat in dollars at terminal markets 

 is not far from pre-war prices in dollars, but a bushel of wheat on 

 the farm will buy much less of the things farmers need or desire 

 than before the war. The end sought, therefore, is to put farm 

 products on a price plane comparable with the price plane of other 

 commodities. 



