62 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



like to know is, outside of exports, what will the Commodity Credit 

 Corporation do with this corn? 



Secretary Brannan. We will, under the statutory obligation, 

 accept it. We will attempt to store it and it will be stored in our 

 possession or under our control, resealed, as the term is now frequently 

 used, and carried over into a subsequent year. It will be represented in 

 part by the figures in the right-hand column on the first table in 

 this brochure. 



Mr. Simpson. Other than export, where would you dispose of 

 the corn? 



Secretary Brannan. It may be fed back to livestock on the 

 very farms where it is sealed. That all depends on the outcome 

 of the succeeding year's crop, on the stimulation of production 

 of livestock, on the amount of feeding which the man may want to 

 undertake, on the amount of feeding which his neighbors may under- 

 take. It is possible that we may have that corn or the exchange 

 for it in kind for several years. 



Mr. Simpson. If it is sealed at $1.31 in Illinois and that same farmer 

 can purchase it back from the Commodity Credit at a later date, 

 approximately what would he pay for it? 



Secretary Brannan. To date the Government has never taken title 

 to corn stored on the farm. If the corn was resealed on the farm, with 

 the title remaining with the producer, he could redeem the corn for his 

 own use by paying the loan plus interest and any storage allowances 

 which the Government may have advanced to him. 



Mr. Simpson. That brings me to this question: What do you regard 

 as a necessary carry-over in bushels? 



Secretary Brannan. I have said on previous occasions that I 

 considered a 700,000,000 bushel carry-over an entirely reasonable 

 carry-over, one which perhaps this Government ought to contem- 

 plate as a year-in-and-3^ear-out average from here on. 



Mr. Simpson. How many bushels? 



Secretary Brannan. ,700,000,000 bushels. I point to the fact that 

 if we had a large carry-over of that character in 1944, 1945, and 1946. 

 we might have avoided the excessive prices of meat to consumers 

 which we all experienced at that time. After all, the supplies of 

 corn available are the primary factor in meat production in this 

 countiy because they are transposed into pork, which is the largest 

 item on the meat market. 



Mr. Simpson. On page 9, on your yield per acre from 1930 to 1948, 

 your statement reads: 



there has been a steady increase of from approximately 20 bushels to the acre in 

 1930, to an all-time high of 42.7 bushels in 1948. 



The yield is more than double. It reads: 



Concurrently with this remarkable increase in yield, there has been a decline 

 in the acreage devoted to corn from around i04, 000,000 acres in 1930, to 

 86,000,000 in 1948. 



The decrease in acreage has not been in proportion to the yield, 

 has it? 



Secretary Brannan. There really is not any relationship between 

 the two. The increase is accounted for by improved varieties. 



Mr. Simpson. In figuring the all-time high of 42.7 bushels per acre, 

 that takes in the commercial area and the noncommercial area as 

 well, does it not? 



