GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 177 



Mr. Andresen. How much is it? 



Secretary Brannan. That is about right. 



Again, Mr. Andresen, I am not trying to be deceptive but while 

 I am sitting here saying one figure, somebody has made a loan out 

 in the Corn Belt. So you cannot give a figure. 



Mr. Andresen. We do not want you to commit perjury or my- 

 thing like that. We want to deal with estimates. 



Secretary Brannan. May I also say that these are recommenda- 

 tions in broad terms? We have tried to be as specific as we could in 

 order to delineate and clarify the recommendations but the specific 

 detail of exactly what pharseology you will use in a statute, I assume 

 we have yet to lay before you and to talk about. 



Mr. Andresen. But that program will be continued and support 

 prices given on specific, basic, storable commodities just as you have 

 in the past, except that the amount on which a farmer can be loaned 

 is limited to the units he can produce. 



In the event that you have marketing quotas in operation and 

 acreage allotments, then the farmer under existing law will be denied 

 as much of a loan as he could get othermse if he complied and he 

 would be denied his soil conservation payments. 



Is that not correct? 



Secretar}^ Brannan. Under existing law? 



Mr. Andresen. Yes. 



Secretary Brannan. I understand the authority is in there to do 

 just that. 



Mr. Andresen. It a\ as in the old law too. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, and it has been in the law since 1938 if 

 I understand correctly. 



Mr. Andresen. We are just going to assume that you will have 

 $3,000,000,000 tied up in the loan program for these new commodities 

 because you will be taking in rye and barley and oats and probably 

 grain sorghums and any item that is storable. 



I want to call your attention to the fact that form 80 to 90 percent 

 of the production of the average farmer comes in the class of non- 

 storable products like beef, veal, pork, poultry, and poultry products, 

 milk, fresh fruits, and vegetables. 



Those are the items that I would like to discuss with you to find 

 out just how that would work out and what the cost would be. 



We will take the case of hogs. Under your proposal the hogs will be 

 set down at $19 a hundred. That is correct, is it not? 



Secretary Brannan. Again let me point out that that is an estimate 

 for 1950 reached by the use of as many known factors as we have. 

 Whatever the parity index may be and whatever the income level 

 may turn out to be in 1949 will, of course, have some influence on it. 



Mr. Andresen. Just for the sake of illustration, we will deal with 

 the figures you submitted. We will assume that hogs sold for $14 a 

 hundred. That is a difference of $5 between the price that the farmer 

 should have and the price that he actually received in the market 

 place. 



Will this farmer receive from the United States Treasury the 

 difference, or $5 a hundred on those hogs? 



Secretary Brannan. In general terms, the answer will be "Yes.'' 

 Let me qualify it in this way. First of all, an individual farmer does 

 not get the difterence between the price for which he sold his hogs in 



