GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 221 



tion of potatoes over and above any limitation of the elastic demand; 

 at that point you should take steps to cut down supply, and by so 

 doing you would not appreciably reduce your price. 



Mr. Andresen. You say you would not appreciably reduce your 

 price? 



Secretary Brannan. You would not affect prices in any appreciable 

 way. 



Mr. Andresen. Then the consumer would not get it any cheaper? 



Secretary Brannan. Not after the price has reached a level that 

 will allow maximum consumption before you cut it off. Certainly, I 

 am not contending for a program which would drive the price of 

 potatoes to 5 cents a bushel or 10 cents a bushel. There is certainly 

 a level or a price below which people would not expect farmers to 

 produce potatoes for them. At that point you make a cut-off — it is 

 easy in potatoes. 



The Chairman. You are not advocating a program which would 

 drive prices below what you consider to be fair prices? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



The Chairman. In other words, if I understand it, your program 

 contemplates a floor of fair price to the farmer who cooperates with 

 the program, which contemplates he will engage in soil conservation 

 practices, but you are not trying to bring the market price below 

 what you consider the fair price? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right; we are not. 



The Chairman. .On the question of where hogs can go: Suppose 

 the price of hogs is down to $16.50 per hundredweight, you have to 

 step in and support the price, do you not? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



The Chairman. And you have to go either to the farmer's gate 

 and buy the hogs, or you have to buy them from the packers? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



The Chairman. And if you go to the farmer's gate, you have to buy 

 the live hogs, and you would then put the Federal Government into 

 the hog business. 



Secretary Brannan. We certainly would. 



The Chairman. Of raising hogs and slaughtering them? 



Secretary Brannan. And the feed business, the vaccination busi- 

 ness, and all of the many other aspects involved in raising hogs. 



The Chairman. And if you go to the packer's plant, you would 

 have to buy the hogs after they have been processed? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



The Chairman. And you would have to arrange for storing the 

 pork? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



The Chairman. And to arrange for disposing of it? 



Secretary Brannan. That is right. 



The Chairman. And j^ou cannot sell the pork in the domestic mar- 

 ket because it will break down the program you are trying to support? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



The Chairman. You would have to find a foreign market? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



The Chairman. And if you did not find a foreign buyer, the Gov- 

 ernment would suffer a total loss? 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, and, of course, hogs do not keep indefi- 

 nitely. 



