GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 49 



corn per farm and 4 bushels per acre for all crop land in the county, 

 or if you want to shorten the 10-year moving average factor to 5 

 years, that is our suggestion as the best approach to the solution of 

 the problem. 



In short, what we are saying is, that if you want to include additional 

 territory in the commercial area the way to do it is to change the 

 definition of what is the commercial area rather than to try to establish 

 some kind of a new intermediate class. 



Mr. Sutton. I am more or less in the same position Mr. White is 

 about cotton. Just in the last 2 or 3 years we have really come up in 

 corn. If you go back to 10 years, we catch the brunt end. If you 

 go back to 5 years we still catch it. I am personally going to do my 

 best to see that we do not get it. 



Secretary Brannan. You will see by the very reference to the map 

 you made that even under the existing definition Tennessee is becoming 

 a commercial corn area. 



Mr, Sutton. Part of it is. There are about five or six counties 

 that are included in 1949. 



Secretary Brannan. And it may be on the basis of the thorough 

 kind of survey and study which we are hoping to undertake that 

 additional parts of the State may be included, as well as additional 

 parts of the country. There is no doubt about it, the use of the 

 hybrid corn seed, the use of additional fertilizer, and the new techni- 

 ques of farming brought increased production to many areas in the 

 country. 



While the over-all major trends seem to indicate yet that the 

 greatest increases are in the traditional areas, that does not at all 

 preclude the fact that there is considerable evidence of increases 

 outside of those areas. 



Mr. Sutton. And on the border lines you would say to relax the 

 policy just a little bit? 



Secretary Brannan. But if you relaxed it you would move it out 

 a little further, and you would still have another border line. Some 

 place there has to be a border between commercial and noncommercial 

 areas. What I am saying is that the committee must consider just 

 where that border line is. 



Let us say we set it at 350 bushels per acre. Across the road on 

 that line there will be some fellow who has 340. I suppose he will 

 be just as perturbed as the fellow who has 440 now and is just 10 

 bushels outside of the definition in a county where there are four 

 bushels to the acre. 



Mr. Sutton. Thank you. 



Mr. PoAGE. Will the gentleman from Kansas yield to me? 



Mr. Hope. I will yield. 



Mr. PoAGE. Mr. Secretary, does it not seem that this line of 

 questioning shows the necessity of making your years by which you 

 determine acreage allotments the same in all these crops, if possible? 



Secretary Brannan. I would say that it strongly indicates that. 



Mr. PoAGE. In other words, we have had a big shift in cotton, as 

 we know, in the last 10 years. If we used only the last 2 years of 

 cotton, or 3 years, excluding 1949, we should also use the same in wheat 

 and corn and other crops? If not, will you not have one crop that has 

 already moved out of the country and another crop that has moved in 

 and they will be given no credit for the crops moved out or the crops 

 moved in? 



