Bushels or Dollars? 



This Is the Problem^Tacing 



Corn Belt Farmers As Allotments 



Are Beceived 



-^ BUSY ^^jt:L^J: leh. w«. £• 



lORN and soil depleting allot- 

 ments are now in the hands of 



corn belt farmers. 



The necessary readjustments, no matter 

 how severe, will be made by many as a 

 matter of course. They realize that you 

 can't let production run wild and still 

 achieve price parity. 



To others, a program which runs coun- 

 ter to custom, orthodox habits of 

 thought, and plans for 1938, will seem 

 too great an obstacle to hurdle. 



Whatever the feeling over the pro- 

 gram, and it varies sharply from farm to 

 farm and from county to county, corn 

 belt farmers are going to decide within 

 the coming weeks whether they are more 

 interested in a price per bu. and total 

 dollars, or in bushels and ears of corn. 

 Experience has disclosed that barring a 

 war or drouths elsewhere, bumper crops 

 and good prices don't go together. 



For many years it has been customary 

 to think that the more bushels of corn 

 in the crib, the more dollars it repre- 



sents. But a look into the past shows 

 the fallacy of such thinking. A normal 

 crop or even a small crop invariably re- 

 turns the farmer more dollars than a 

 bumper yield. And since we pay debts 

 and taxes, and buy machinery, equip- 

 ment, and supplies with dollars, not 

 bushels, farmers cannot overlook the im- 

 portance of price. 



In McHenry county, for instance. Farm 

 Adviser J. H. Brock points out in the 

 Farm Bureau Bulletin, that the 1936 corn 

 crop of 3,007,300 bu. was worth |3,- 

 113,100 while the much larger crop in 

 1937 of 3,900,000 bu. was worth only 

 $2,003,000 on the farm, or |1, 110,100 

 less. 



One of the questions asked at town- 

 ship and county soil conservation meet- 

 ings is, "Why was there such a sharp re- 

 duction in corn acreage?" 



The law says that the acreage allot- 

 ment for corn shall be that acreage 

 which, based on the past 1 years' experi- 

 ence, will produce an amount of corn 





equal to the "reserve supply level." What 

 is the reserve supply level? It's an 

 amount equal to what we usually con- 

 sume in this country plus exports plus 10 

 per cent. The allotment also took into 

 consideration the abnormally large corn 

 crop of 1937. On April 1 we still had 

 left the tremendous carryover of 1,067,- 

 000,000 bu. of corn on farms, and an- 

 other 40,000,000 bu. or so in commercial 

 channels. 



At a county-wide meeting of Kendall 

 county farmers in Yorkville, April 19, 

 State Soil Conservation Committeeman 

 John Bumgarner pointed out that the 

 normal corn carryover on April 1 for the 

 United States was 793,000,000 bu. which 

 means that this year we have the sub- 

 stantial amount of 274,000,000 in excess 

 of normal. Add to this a heavy carry- 

 over of oats, substantial amounts of low 

 grade wheat fit for nothing but livestock 

 feed, and a reduced supply of livestock, 

 and you see why corn acreage reduction is 

 necessary if farmers are to avoid driving 

 down the price to 35 cents a bu. or less 

 next fall. 



A tour through northern and western 

 Illinois counties the latter part of April, 

 disclosed that about half the counties had 

 their individual corn allotments figured. 

 The others expected to have them out 

 within a few days. All county officials 

 reported far more interest and greater 

 attendance at meetings where the pro- 

 gram was explained than in previous 

 years. 



In Kendall county, Chairman Harvey 

 Christian and Sec'y. Fred Reingardt of 

 the county committee reported an aver- 

 age attendance of 108 fjer meeting com- 

 pared to 35 to 40 the past two years. 

 At these meetings, Reingardt said, it ap- 

 peared that 80 to 90 per cent would co- 

 operate. After the allotments were 



^ L A. A. RECORD 



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