what the Members Say 



Well Said Bro. Carrier 



I see by the papers tliat opponents of our 

 AAA program are taking credit for influenc- 

 ing Secretary Wallace against calling a corn 

 marketing leferendum. They are also saying 

 that the non-cooperator is going to be better 

 off ihan the many who kept within his corn 

 allotment. That's a joke and I don't believe 

 many farmers are going to be fooled by such 

 propaganda. 



Let's look into this thing a little. Let us 

 take, for example, a farmer who this ye.ir 

 raised 100 acres of corn with a yield of -lO 

 bu5hels an acre. This week our grain men 

 here were bidding }.^c a bu. for number three 

 corn for December delivery. This 4000 bu. of 

 corn would sell for $1326.00 at that price. 



Now the farmer who ha.s cooperated was to 

 reduce 18%, but we will say for good measure 

 that he only planted 80 acres or a reduction of 

 20%. His 80 acres at 40 bushels per acre 

 would only produce 3200 bushels. But the 

 Adjustment Act says because you went along 

 we will make you a loan of 57c per bushel on 

 your corn or $1824.00. Also you have earned 

 an extra ten cents per bushel or $320.00 more 

 which added together makes a total of 

 $2144.00. Now does anyone really think this 

 farmer who reduced his acies is going to feel 

 very bad by getting $824.00 more money than 

 the man who planted all he wanted to. Be- 

 sides the man who used his head saved 'he 

 entire expense of operating 20 acres. 



If there are any farmers who feel that their 

 liberty has been taken away, and who have 

 tried hard to raise a three billion bushel crop 

 of corn, when they know that we cannot use 

 or export only about two billion four hundred 

 million bushels may I ask what are you going 

 to do with this extra corn? Are you going to 

 work with the buyer, and as they do force 

 about 70% of us farmers to take a price far 

 below the cost of production, farmers who 

 have debts that must be paid and who have 

 no credit to hold their corn over for a lean 

 year. 



The AAA says to all farmeri who cooperate, 

 we will see that you will get a loan which 

 will be sure to pay at least 60c per bushel for 

 the corn you raise. 



Just look back to September 1937 when our 

 cribs were empty and com was selling at 

 $1.25 per bushel and then the last days 

 of November of 1937, how much did our 

 grain buyers offer for corn when it was known 

 that we had raised 2,650,000,000 bushels. If 

 he paid the same as ours at Decatur, III., you 

 will find it was 36c per bushel ; on December 

 first just following, a loan was made avail- 

 able to all cooperators of 50c per bushel and 

 in a few days established that price and some 

 sales were made up to 54c. Then what hap- 

 pened? The banks here offered a loan of 

 40c per bushel to those not eligible to a 

 Government loan, under similar conditions as 

 government loans were made. If corn went 

 below 40c they must put up extra collateral. 



Have our critics any better plan to offer 

 the farmer th.in the AAA of 1938? We farm- 

 ers are greatly in reed of constructive builders, 

 but we have no place for those who only want 

 to destroy. 



I am reminded that a few years ago here 

 in Macon County an organization sprang up 

 with a veterinary doctor as its head who 

 lived at Garrett. They were going to brush 

 the Farm Bureau off the map and take the 

 $15 paid by its members and use it and pay 

 off all the then existing farm mortgages in 

 the State. Fhey have long passed into ob- 

 livion but we still have the Farm Bureau, 

 also farm mortgages. 



Then when that organization was gone The 

 Farmers HoUaday bunch was organized to 

 force the price of livestock up to where they 

 thought it should be. And we all remember 

 the holding up of trucks and trains for some 

 time, but as soon as the stock began to move 

 it came in such quantities as to erase all high 

 prices and resulted in failure, and so they 

 are no more. They were builded without a 

 solid foundation to stand on. . . . 



I am sure that no honest farmer will deny 

 that the crop loan has been a Godsend to all 

 farmers. How can anyone have any honest 

 objection? The Farm Bureau is and always 

 has been seeking the best workable plans that 

 can be found, also to cooperate with any or- 

 ganization that will help to better the farmer's 

 financial condition, and they will continue to 

 forge ahead until the goal is reached. 



C. E. Orrier. 

 Macon county. 111. 



AAA Too General 



"Next Year's AAA Program" as given in 

 the August issue of the RECORD states con- 

 cisely why so many farmers will not comply 

 with the government plan. It is not that they 

 do not understand, but that in so many in- 

 stances the "Program" does not fit into the 

 faim's be'it management. 



The Soil Conservation Service (erosion con- 

 trol) takes each farm under its oversight as 

 a unit, and works diligently for its bettei- 

 ment in every way. The AAA program is 

 trying to work under a general rule and it 

 can't be done successfully. 



On my own 180 farm (a live stock farm) 

 I csnnot recall more than two years since 

 1905 when any grain other than wheat has 

 bten sold from the place. All corn, oats, 

 beans, alfalfa, hay ;'nd straw, being fed and 

 r.sed on the place. It would be foolish to 

 comply with a government agent's crop reduc- 

 tion plan ind put U5 in a position to buy more 

 grain than we aie now doing to feed cur 

 stock. 



Near here the Shell Petroleum Corp. has 

 erected a large expensive laboratory for tne 

 sole use of the company's chemical engineers 

 in research work in obtaining more marketable 

 products from oil. Does not this tell us that 

 the Government is going at it backwards? 

 Should not the effort and expense be in the 

 line of more marketable products and more 

 markets? In my humble opinion, the Soil 

 Conservation Service is excellent in its farm 

 unit work, but the AAA Program with its 

 general rules is bunk and a useless expense. 

 W. L. Duckies 

 Madison county. III. 



Principle Of AAA Sound 



In analjTzing my farm account records kept 

 for the last fourteen years, I find that in 

 practically every instance the price of livestock, 

 following a good corn crop, declined. When 

 corn was not so plentiful and the price higher, 

 the profit on livestock was larger. 



On the 160 .icre firm 1 operate I would 

 like to raise all the corn possible to feed more 

 livestock provided I could make money doing 

 it. But is just doesn't work out that way. 



Following a short crop year when we have 

 higher prices, farmers naturally want to in- 

 crease their acreage. Then we have an over- 

 supply, lower corn prices but higher livestock 

 prices which follows the high corn price of the 

 year before. As a result the grain farmer gets 

 into the livestock business, the livestock man 

 increases his production too, and livestock 

 prices hit the tobcggin. In other words, in 

 both livestock and feed, prices go from one 



extreme to the other with bumper crop and 

 short crop years changing the picture. 



I feed four to six carloads of cattle and two 

 or three carloads of hogs each year and buy 

 twice as much corn as I raise. I for one don't 

 want cheap corn because it doesn't help the 

 farmer who raised it nor the man who feeds 

 it. 



It seems to me that the present farm pro- 

 gram offers us a icmedy for feast and famine 

 prices that benefi's both the livestock and the 

 grain farmer. The AAA will help stabilize 

 feed prices, and by so doing, will help stabilize 

 the prices of livestock Feed and livestock 

 prices will not hit the ceiling one year and the 

 floor the next, but will find a reasonable and 

 stable price (depending on the extent of co- 

 operation of farmers) that will not only bene- 

 fit the producer but the consuming public 

 as well. 



Of course, the man who has the capital 

 and facilities to buy and bold cheap corn can 

 make money, but he is making it off of the 

 farmer who is forced to sell regardless of 

 price. 



The present program is not for a select 

 few but it was inaugurated to help agriculture 

 as a whole. 



The AAA proj^ram didn't fit my farm the 

 way I was farming, but I am going to tnr 

 and make my farm fit the program for I 

 believe it will enable farmers not only to 

 secure a fair and stable price but will make 

 it possible for us to leave our farms in a 

 high state of cultivation for the next genera- 

 tion. 



The program is not perfect, but the principle 

 is right. Let's work constructively through our 

 farm leaders and local conservation commit- 

 tees, and help correct the weak places. It 

 seems to me such an attitude will get us 

 farther in 'he end. 



Otto Steffey, 

 Henderson county. 111. 



Krahl In Ariiona 



Adolph M. Krahl, formerly in the educa- 

 tional department of Pure Milk Association, 

 is located at Yuma, Arizona at the Yuma 

 Indian Mis.sion maintained by the Methodist 

 Episcopal Church. 



In a letter to the RECORD, he writes: "The 

 farmers of Yuma's Imperial Valley have not 

 as yet learned how to cooperate to control their 

 production to get fair prices. This garden spot 

 of the world will grow anything at any time 

 you can get water, and with the completion 

 of the Imperial Dam they have water all the 

 time. A few weeks ago over 100 cars of 

 cantaloupe were shipped out of here each day. 

 Watermellons are plentiful as are honey dew 

 melons. I go over to the packing house and 

 carry away 75 to 100 melons free. The next 

 day I was in Los Angeles, i80 miles west, and 

 saw the s.ime melons priced at 10 cents each. 

 Grapefruit crop was big this year. A friend, 

 a member of the Califcrnii Fruit Growers, 

 received net three and one-half cents a box 

 after paying all expenses of growing, powder- 

 ing, water, boxes, labels, etc. 



"I have made good headway here in get- 

 ting the Indians to think in terms of coopera- 

 tives. Thej- have a communal spirit well 

 established but need training in cooperative 

 marketing." 



man 



b 



Bouquet 



You're turning out a high-class, well- 

 edited, mighty well done sheet. 



Lao J. Brosemer, Managing Editor, 

 Breeder's Gazette. 



12 



L A. A. RECORD 



