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WHEN 6000 SOIL CONSERVAnON COMMITTEEMEN MET AT SPRINGFIELD, MAR. 19 AT CALL OF LEE M. GENTRY OF OREGON. 



CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE COMMITTEE 



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ducing a surplus. The market quota of- 

 fers farmers a way to hold part of their 

 crop for a future time when it will be 

 needed. The government provides an 

 opportunity through loans to prevent 

 dumping surpluses at demoralized prices. 



Chairman Gentry who handled the 

 meeting ably and effectively, a$ked for 

 questions about the program after brief 

 remarks by Uncle Joe Fulkerson of Jersey- 

 ville, a former member of the State Com- 

 mittee, and J. C. Spitler, assistant di- 

 rector of Extension. 



Gentry, Wickard, Smith and others 

 took a hand in answering questions sub- 

 mitted from the floor. 



"Will corn-belt farmers be subjected to 

 competition from the South and other 

 areas outside the corn belt?" popped up 

 a leather lunged questioner far back in 

 the balcony. 



"Farmers who are not in the com- 

 mercial corn area will be limited on their 

 soil-depleting crops," answered Wickard. 



"In the South com acreage can be ex- 

 panded if the corn is needed on the farm, 

 but it cannot be expanded if the corn is 

 to be marketed. The fact is that corn 

 yields in the South are low and it is al- 

 most impossible to store corn because of 

 the weevil. There is less corn being 

 grown in the South today than five years 

 ago. That is the best answer to critics 

 who charge that the corn-belt farmer is 

 being sold out." 



On the question of imports of 

 Argentine corn, it was said that about 

 30,000,000 bushels of the 1937 corn crop 

 have been exported; moreover that 

 Argentine corn imports have dried up 

 and only come in when the price is at 

 parity or above. The policy of the gov- 

 ernment is to protect the American 

 farmer against imports up to parity 

 prices. 



Mr. Gentry told the community com- 

 mittees to get information about crop 

 acres on each farm the best way they 



can. He pointed out that farmers who 

 don't cooperate in the program are not 

 eligible for corn loans except when a 

 market quota is voted and then only up 

 to 60 per cent of the amount loaned to 

 cooperators. Even then such loans to 

 non-cooperators are limited to the amount 

 placed in storage. He said that an average 

 farm will have approximately 66 per 

 cent of its crop acres in soil-depleting 

 crops. 



Soybeans for hay this year is classi- 

 fied as a non-depleting crop. But oats 

 for hay is a depleting crop. The diffi- 

 culty of determining whether oats are 

 cut at the right time to prevent going 

 to seed was a factor in this decision. 



Wickard pointed out that penalties 

 will be collected by direct suit just as 

 in a federal income tax. 



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Uncle Ah says that die worst ttaitors 



to a country are those who plunge it 

 into war. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



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