GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 709 



for livestock purposes it is in direct competition with corn. We in 

 western Kansas could cut our wheat acreage and we could plant milo 

 maize, and if we plant milo maize in order to feed our cattle and our 

 hogs we are in competition with corn, and the thing ought to be set 

 up so the corn farmer is protected. 



Now one more statement and I am through, gentlemen. We have 

 a practical problem ahead of us the following year in working this 

 thing out; and we have got to be realistic about it. We are approach- 

 ing a new crop year. We are going to be seeding wheat in western 

 Kansas by the first of September. The combines are already rolling 

 in Texas and in Oklahoma; I met them on my round; thev are pre- 

 paring now to thrash wheat; I saw a half dozen or ten going south, 

 wheat combines, and the new crop will be rolling in a very short time. 



This session of Congress will soon be over. What are we going 

 to do? Here we are confronted with a great deal of confusion, and 

 I do not think there are two farmers in this room who agree on all the 

 details of this thing. I think we would agree if we had been looking 

 at the woods and not the individual trees, not the details; I think we 

 agree on principles but not on the details. That confusion will eventu- 

 ally clear up, and we have got to continue. It cannot happen this 

 summer. It is going to come after we get this planted season over. 

 So we must have a short-range program. We have got to have a long- 

 range program, that is true, but now we need a short-range program, 

 so the Western Kansas Development Association has this to recom- 

 mend: We recommend that we extend the present parity formula for 

 1950, making whatever adjustments in the allotment and control 

 program that are necessary to assure equitable and fair distribution 

 among the farmers, whatever group they are, and whatever crops 

 they are producing. There may need to be some adjustments in the 

 set-up for allotments and controls. And it is not for me as a farmer, 

 and I do not believe for any other farmer to determine what has to 

 be or should be. I think it is up to you men in Congress to decide 

 that. 



But, Mr. Chairman, let us get started on the production of the 

 new crop, which we in the winter wheat district are starting to do now. 

 We are summer fallowing now for the new wheat, this fall. We 

 will cut our wheat in Kansas — by the 15th of June they will be cutting 

 wheat in Oklahoma and Texas, and by the 1st of June in some places, 

 so there are only some 4 weeks to go, and immediately following that, 

 the combines will be up in our area, and we are still faced with con- 

 fusion at a time when we are ready for the new crop. We have got 

 to be realistic about it; we have got to have a short-range program, 

 and what we want to do is to continue with the present 90-percent 

 parity, for 1950, and then make whatever slight adjustments are neces- 

 sary in the control of acreage and marketing quotas, the necessary 

 controls to take care of whatever surplus we may have. I think if 

 we will do that, gentlemen, it will give time for the farmers, the 

 Department of Agriculture and the Congress to study this program, 

 to put through and develop a long-range program. 



That covers the general principles in my suggestion, and what I 

 think we ought to do now. 



Now may I introduce to you my colleague from w^estern Kansas, 

 Mr. Henry Parkinson, of Scott City, Kans. 



