GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 653 



Mr. Taylor. That is right. Even though in most cases they were 

 not requh'ed, they could see that in the future they would be needed 

 again, and those figures have been kept and they already have them 

 now, and it is just a matter of digging up the record, whatever is 

 decided to be the base period, and taking the farmer's production, 

 and that would be his quota basis, and you would apply the percentage 

 used by the Secretary on the national basis for 1948 or 1950 to what- 

 ever the total consumption was. 



Mr. Pace. Certainly, one thing your plan would do is that it would 

 reward the high yield producer, because if you had 100 acres of wheat 

 making 60 bushels to the acre and I had 100 acres of wheat making 

 20 bushels to the acre, you would get three times as many certificates 

 as I would 



Mr. Taylor. We usually do not have that difference in the same 

 locality. As time went on and you drop a year and pick up a year, 

 any estabhshed wide difference would be equahzed. You do not have 

 good crops all the time. 



Mr. Pace. Then you would not freeze those certificates? 



Mr. Taylor. No; I would not freeze them. 



Mr. Pace. "Wliat would you do to get more certificates next year 

 than you got this year? 



Mr. Taylor. It would depend on the amount of wheat the Secretary 

 determined would probably l^e used. 



Mr. Pace. Assuming his allocation is the same — 500,000,000 

 bushels? 



Mr. Taylor. The value of the certificate would change with the 

 market price. 



Mr. Pace. That is not it. I asked you what you would do or 

 could do to get more certificates, more bushels, next year than you 

 do this year. 



Mr. Taylor. I could not do anything. 



Mr. Pace. You would freeze them, then? 



Mr. Taylor. It would vary automatically by my record of past 

 production. In other words, my wheat base one year might be, say, 

 the last 5 years, and next year, in computing the wheat base, one year 

 would be dropped and another year picked up, so that it would be a 

 different 5 years. So I might drop a low crop and pick up a high crop, 

 or it might be the reverse. 



Mr. Pace. You are producing now, you say, 500 acres of wheat a 

 year. Suppose under the certificate plan you could produce that allot- 

 ment of bushels on 250 acres and let us say that is all 3'ou decided to 

 plant; that you are just going to plant for the domesti3 market. On 

 the other hand, I do not; I go ahead and put all of my 500 acres in. 

 Then what happens the second year between the two of us? 



Mr. Taylor. In estimating my wheat base, that lower acreage 

 production would be reflected in the certificate I receive. 



Mr. Pace. You would get less? 



Mr. Taylor. That is right. 



Mr. Pace. Then I think your plan is a rather severe punishment in 

 addition. 



Mr. Taylor. But the farmer is not forced to produce that lesser 

 acreage. 



Mr. Pace. Wait a moment. Understand what you are saying. 

 You said if you decided to produce onl}^ for domestic consumption, 



91215 — 49 — ser. s, pt. 4 3 



