would be made to keep them up to parity in the case of certain essenti.c.1 



foods. In some cases it may be necessary to permit prices well above 



parity to get the production desirable. But another report indicated 



that the government would use every means at its disposal to stabilize 



corn and other feed grain prices at around the 25 PQ^ cent of oarity 



mark. It is no wonder, with these apparently conflicting statements, 



that there was much confusion Tuesday in the grain market. One might 



conclude from the above statements that farmers may expect to get pajrity 

 prices for the animal products greatly needed, but that they cannot ex- 

 pect to get parity prices for corn or the feed grains. 



Another factor in the situation is the government's decision 

 to release 100 million bushels of wheat for the production of industrial 

 alcohol and use only a fraction of the 6o million bushels of corn for 

 that purpose that was previously set aside. The wheat is to be released 

 s-t 91 cents a bushel which would be the equivalent of '^5 cents a bushel 

 for corn, on a pound for pound basis. There -vas also some talk of 

 releasing wheat to be used as feed for livestock. These measures would 

 tend to help offset the present rapid depletion in the stocks of 

 government-owned corn. 



The suggestion by the Commodity Credit Corporation that loans 

 might be called on the I70 million bushels of corn now under seal was 

 probably unfortunate as it may tend to make f^xifiers feel that it would 

 be unwise to place additional corn under loan because of the danger 

 that they might be forced to redeem it at any time or lose the advantage 

 of any further price rise. Many local banks may be willing to advance 

 cash to farmers at a reasonable rate on their corn and relieve the 

 farmer of this hazard. 



A further complicating factor is the necessity to have a 

 large acreage of corn to feed the livestock called for in the 19^2 

 goals and maintain reasonable reserves, while at the sajne time a very 

 substr^ntial increase in the acreage of soybeans is urged. Farmers r>rc 



