94 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



' Mr. Sutton. Who is selected by the Department of Agriculture? 



Mr. Walker. That is correct. 



Mr. Sutton. But in determining who the committeeman shall be 

 the farmer has nothing to say about it. 



Mr. Walker. Except in the analysis of local conditions, which are 

 taken into account when making adjustments in the indicated county 

 allotments. 



Mr. Sutton. But the State man is the one that actually makes the 

 analysis. 



Mr. Walker. But he is one of the committeemen. 



Mr. Sutton. But he still can go contrary to their advice if he wants 

 to? 



Mr. Walker. Well usually they 



Mr. Sutton. Usually they do, do they not? 



Mr. Walker. I have never known of that in all the time I have 

 been in this work.. I have been working with these programs for 

 years, and everytime we have set a county corn allotment acreage I 

 have never known of State committeemen disregarding county com- 

 mittee recommendations. 



Mr. Sutton. What I am driving at is this, and what I hope to 

 achieve is this, that the State committeemen will not be appointed 

 by the Department of Agriculture but will be elected by the county 

 committeemen who will in turn be elected by the county farmers, 

 and therefore the farmers will have a voice in the program. 



Mr. Walker. Well, that is something beyond me to comment on. 



Now as to getting this allotment down to the farm level. The 

 work in the county begins with the county committeemen or the 

 community committeemen. The apportionment of this county 

 acreage allotment to the farms in the county is on the basis of rota- 

 tion practices carried out ort the farm, the tillable acres on the farm, 

 the topography of the land of the farm, and the type of soil of the 

 farm, as provided by the regulations of the Secretarj^. 



Mr. Pace. On corn there is no historical basis at all in making 

 the individual farm allotments. 



Mr. Walker. In order to give due consideration to those factors 

 it is necessary to have some historical data of what has been done 

 on the farm for a number of years, and a determination of the rota- 

 tion system on the farm 



Mr. Pace. There is no such requirement in the law that enables 

 them to plant on the farm, on the basis of a series of years, taking 

 into account the Department's action in making the individual farm 

 allotments? 



Mr. Walker. It is not specifically stated that we must use a 

 historical background, but we have found no other way to do it 

 except by determining the rotation practices followed on the farm. 

 You have to know what the farmer is doing, and what he has been 

 doing on the farm on the tillable acres, in order to arrive at an 

 allotment. 



Mr. Pace. I understand that, Mr. Walker, but it seems to me, 

 after a cursory examination of the things that are taken into account, 

 the elements that you have considered in alloting the corn acreage 

 to counties, that you have followed more or less one method over 

 the last 5 years. 



