GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 101 



Mr. Walker. Yes. In the south central part of Iowa there are 

 some counties that do not and cannot i)roduce a great quantity of 

 corn. 



Mr. HoF.VEN. On second thought, there may be some in the southern 

 section of tlie State. 



Mr. W.\LKER. If you change the formula, so as to confine the 

 commercinl corn-producing area to the northern section, it will not 

 give you a contiguous area. 



Mr. HoEVEX. Let me ask n^ou another question: Do you not think 

 that some consideration should be given to enlarging the figure to 

 meet the situation realistically? 



Mr. Walker. To enlarge those quantities would be to pull the areas 

 in closer. It is believed, and it is my own belief, that this formula is 

 just about as good a formula as we can work out. We have tried 

 other formulas but we have not discovered anything that we felt would 

 take the place of this. 



Mr. HoEVEN. I am not fighting it, 1 was just wondering if we could 

 have a formula that would be a bit more realistic. 



Mr. Pace. Except, Mr. Walker, that you do have some misgivings 

 about the use of the 10 years. 



Mr. Walker. That is the lO-year yiekl? 



Mr. Pace. Yes. 



Mr. Walker. Yes; that could l)e stepped up to the last 5 years, I 

 think. 



Mr. Pace. In that connection I would like to put in the record at 

 this point a simple statement showing the progress of corn production. 



The acreage in 1930, according to the statistics filed with the 

 committee by tlie Secretary, in round numbers, was 104,000,000 

 acres of corn, and in 1948, 86,000,000 acres. 



The proiluction in 1980, on the 104,000,000 acres, was 2,000,000,000 

 bushels. 



The production in 1948, on the 86,000.000 acres, was 3,650,000,000. 



The average yield for the United States in 1930 was 20.5 bushels 

 per acre. The average yield in 1948 was 42.7 bushels per acre. 



So that while the acreage has been cut from 104,000,000 to 

 86,000,000 acres, the production has increased from 2,000,000.000 

 bushels to 3,650,000,000 bushels, and the average yield has more tban 

 doubled, that is, from 20.5 bushels per acre to 42.7 bushels. 



I am giving those figures, because some of the newspapers yesterday 

 carried a report indicating that acres in corn for this year, 84,000,000 

 acres, was the lowest in 50 years. That statement is misleading if 

 standing alone. 



Mr. Walker. That is correct. 



Mr. Pace. And it can mislead the American people into thinking 

 that the farmers will be able to produce only a very short corn crop. 



.\nd that is one of the reasons why we can consider the 10-year 

 average to be antiquated, because the movement upward in production 

 of corn has been so rapid. 



Mr. Walker. Yes. 



Mr. Pace. That is more rapid tlian it has been in any other com- 

 modity that I know of during the 10-year period up to the present 

 time. 



Mr. Andresen. Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Pace. Yes, Mr. Andresen. 



