72 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Andresen. I will admit that. Of course prior to the fall of 

 1938 we had a program where a farmer was paid for planting soil- 

 conserving crops, but after that they put in a program to pay him for 

 planting soil-depleting crops. That was under Wallace. The origi- 

 nal intent of the program was changed. 



Air. PoAGE. I do not know that any program ever paid them for 

 planting soil-depleting crops. 



Mr. Andresen. Certainly. 



Mr. Pace. Will the committee pardon me in suggesting that we get 

 back on corn for a little while? 



Are there any further questions by the committee? 



Mr. Andresen. I wanted to ask a question about corn. 



Mr. Pace. Are you prepared this morning, Mr. Secretary, to aid 

 the com.ro.ittee with suggestions regarding the corn law itself on the 

 question of how the acreage allotments should be made, and so forth, 

 or do you want to let Mr. McArthur or somebody else cover that? 



Under the present corn law you are taking into account corn pro- 

 duction over a period of 10 years. Have you any recomm.endations 

 that the committee change that to a lesser number of years? 



Secretary Brannan. Mr. Chairm.an, if you wiU refer to m.y reply 

 to one of the questions, we do suggest that under certain circum.stances 

 the committee might want to consider shortening the period. 



Mr. Pace. Do you have a recommendation as to what the period 

 should be, Mr. Secretary? 



Secretary Brannan. There was the suggestion that you might 

 want to consider a shorter period of time, a 5-year period, in connec- 

 tion with establishing the average carry-over as one of the factors. 

 That was a recommendation we set forth on page 8. 



Mr. Andresen. Is that a firm, recommendation, or do we have to 

 wait until you com.e up with the Departm.ent's recom.m.endation? 



Secretary Brannan. Excuse me, that is not on page 8. 



As I said to the committee yesterday, there is som.e interdependence 

 between the recommendations that you would m.ake with respect to 

 establishing some new formula for corn acreage quotas or marketing 

 quotas or allotm.ents which would be generally applicable across the 

 board. They might also apply to wheat and they might also apply 

 to some other grains. We thought we would deal with the recomm.en- 

 dations in a composite at the tim.e we cam.e up with the recommenda- 

 tions on the price support program.. After all, they are one of the 

 ancillary instruments to a price support program. 



Mr. Pace. Mr. Secretary, as I recall, your State corn allotment is 

 based on the production over the period of the last 10 years. 



Secretary Brannan. A 10-year moving average. 



Mr. Pace. Your commercial area quaUfication is based on the last 

 10 years. Do you expect to cover items of that character in your 

 general statement to the com.mittee a week from, now? 



Secretary Brannan. We do. 



Mr. Pace. Do those recommendations cover all those commodities? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, sir; although that does not mean we will 

 take them up commodity by com.modity because I think they fall in 

 general classes. 



Mr. Pace. You know the Department has already submitted its 

 recommendations with regard to cotton. 



