456 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



I am assiiruii)<r that is much more true in the newer areas in the 

 West than it is in some of the older aj^ricultural areas, although I 

 think it is probably a little more true in some of the older areas. Some 

 of us realize that. In my own community, where I started farming 

 25 years ago, it was entirely barley with a little wheat. In the next 

 4 or 5 years it was almost all beans. Certainly that was the great 

 major commodity. 



The next major commodity was sugar beets. The next major field 

 we got into was vegetables. We are now working around again to a 

 grain, alfalfa, and a pretty general economy. So that any agricul- 

 tural program which tends to fix, by continuing quota or allocation 

 allotments, a particular crop in a particular area would be very much 

 to the detrinicMit of our country. There are many reasons for this 

 movement. It is partly economic, because we see an opportunity to 

 make moie money by growing another crop. It likewise is very 

 largely biologic, if that is the right word, in that we have soil diseases 

 and othei' diseases M'hicli affect crops, and for that reason it is cer- 

 tainly in the best interests of the efficiency of the Nation that we keep 

 this movement either b}^ strict rotation on the farm or in many cases 

 by rotation by areas because of some infestation, because of the soil, 

 or because of some organism coming in that makes it almost impos- 

 sible to continue the [)roduction of that crop. 



It is very essential that we keep an elastic program which will per- 

 mit these economic changes. 



I might just comment to our friend from California, a cotton pro- 

 ducer with whom I certaiiily hesitate to disagree, but certainly under 

 a fixed high, and I say a high support for cotton, his problem is going 

 to be more difficult, probably, in this Congress because our people with 

 new^ land can do very well at 90 percent of parity, and it will be diffi- 

 cult to keep them from doing it. 



I hope you will not work too hard at keeping them from doing it at 

 the moment, but that will be an increasing problem as the fixed sup- 

 ports get higher. 



The other point that I would like to raise is that I know of no place 

 in the world where we have got fixed prices for agriculture, where we 

 have an agriculture that can begin to compare with the freedom, the 

 independence or the production or the cheapness of production of the 

 agriculture that we have in the United States. Many of these coun- 

 tries to whom agi'iculture has been supplying such tremendous supplies 

 in recent years have foimd it necessary to import that agricultural pro- 

 duction from the United States largely because the production of 

 their own country has been limited by fixed government prices, quotas, 

 and programs. I certainly would like to see some example that we 

 could point to in the world of the success of a fixed government-price- 

 and-control program before we abandon this condition that we have in 

 this country which is the envy and the admiration of the world, the 

 salvation of the world, in many cases, to go to a fixed Government- 

 control program in this country. 



Mr. Pace. Thank you very much. Mr. Wilson. 



Mr. Kline, I believe you have another witness. 



Mr. Kline. Yes, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Wilson Heaps, president of the 

 Maryland Farm Bureau and member of our board of directors. 



Mr. Pace. We are delighted to have you with us, Mr. Heaps, and 

 we will be glad to hear from vou at this time. 



