278 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Secretary Brannon. No, not to support any commodity that I 

 can think of. 



Mr. Andresen. Then there is no need for additional legislation. 



Secretary Brannan. Well, if you want to support them by the 

 purchase method, assuming, first of all, that you do not disturb any 

 provision of the Aiken bill, it is my understanding that the word 

 "payments" as it appears in the Aiken bill would permit the Secretary 

 of Agriculture to follow a type of operation which we have outlined 

 here, and referred to as production payments. 



Mr. Andresen. That is what your solicitor said. I do not agree 

 with that interpretation. 



Mr. Hope. Will the gentleman yield? 



Mr. Andresen. Yes. 



Mr. Hope. Is this not true: Under the Aiken bill you would be 

 prohibited from supporting the price of perishable commodities 

 through the Commodity Credit Corporation? 



Secretary Brannan. That is correct, Mr. Hope. 



Mr. Hope. You are not prohibited now, as I understand it. You 

 would not be prohibited until title U of the act of 1948 went into 

 effect, and that expressly prohibits the support of perishables through 

 the Commodity Credit Corporation operations. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes. 



Mr. Hope. However, as I understand it now under the general 

 authority of the Commodity Credit Corporation you could go in at 

 the present time and support the price of any commodity? 



Air. Hunter. Not through payments. 



Mr. Hope. But you could by buymg? 



Mr. Andresen. Then you would need some additional legislation 

 to carry out all of your recommendations, as I understand it. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, you would. 



Mr. Andresen. Now, I want to ask you about a few commodities. 



As I understood it a week ago last Monday, or on April 7, you 

 stated that a farmer would have 1,800 units, or the equivalent of 180 

 bales of cotton that he could get support on, and what he raised above 

 that he would not get support on, and he would sell all of it in the 

 market. 



By the interpretation which you placed on the lltli or 12th you 

 stated that when marketing quotas were in operation and acreage 

 allotments on cotton and any other basic commodity, that the farmer 

 would be protected for his entire production on the allocated acreage 

 and he would not be governed by those units. That is correct, 

 is it not? 



Secretary Brannan. That is correct, sir. As a matter of fact, we 

 indicated that possibility in answer to the question on the 7th by 

 Senator Anderson. 



Mr. Andresen. You get down to these nonstorable commodities, 

 like eggs. Under the unit system, as 1 have calculated it here, a 

 farmer could raise 57,000 dozens of eggs, the unit measure 31.88 

 dozens. That would be around 57,000 dozens of eggs. 



Secretary Brannan. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Andresen. We will say that was in operation now, producing 

 a surplus of eggs, and you are buying eggs. You would just go on 

 the per-unit support system. Eggs would probably sink to 25 or 30 

 cents a dozen at the retail figure, as against 60 or 70 cents a dozen. 



