GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 717 



ment, changes the pattern. I think we must give consideration to 

 the existing situation that has been developed, but do not you agree 

 that we must also give consideration to what you might call the 

 normal production pattern of wheat in the country? It seems to 

 me if you want to include the last 3 years as representative of the 

 situation that these abnormal conditions brought about, and to be 

 fair to the men who have been growing wheat for the last 50 years, 

 you should probably take three prewar years and give consideration 

 to them; that whatever weighting you give, give each one a weighting 

 of 50 percent, 40-60, 25-75, or whatever will bring about the nearest 

 fair deal for all of them. 



Mr. Brown. I agree with you very much. Mr. Pace. 



Mr. Pace. I am told' — I do not know, and I look a great deal to 

 the gentleman from Kansas, Mr. Hope, for advice on the subject — 

 I am told there have been enormous areas broken up and put in 

 wheat that never should have been put in wheat, that ought to be 

 taken out of wheat as quicldy as possible; that is an unusual and 

 abnormal development. 



Now, we have had the same thing in other crops. I am having 

 an experience do^vn in my country with the peanut crop. We de- 

 veloped a pretty good peanut program, and men went out and rented 

 thousands of acres and put them in peanuts in the last 3 or 4 years, 

 and we are under quotas this year on peanuts. The result is that 

 under a strict, straight fromula those men are getting imconscionable 

 acreage allotments of peanuts and, when they get them, they have 

 to take them away from somebody else. 



Now, is not there a need somewhere to give consideration to the 

 normal production of wheat like it has been for generations and then 

 give consideration to the situation as it is today, that we never can 

 overlook? 



Mr. Brown. You are right. Let me point out here just briefly 

 and go back to the years 1915-19 and look at the production of wheat, 

 and you will find we produced a billion bushel crop in 1915. You will 

 find, too, that in 1919 we got up to 74,000,000 acres of wheat, and 

 that is 30 years ago. And if you check the records today, you will 

 find they are not in the same acres of wheat, the 75,000,000 we are 

 talking about now, and there might be a slight increase of 80,000,000 

 acres. 



Mr. Pace. They said 81,000,000. 



Mr. Brown. Yes. But our friends from Omaha are going to cut 

 that out, so that we can only consider 1948, and that is not any larger 

 than in 1919, nor are we producing any more bushels than we did in 

 1919, in spite ■ 



Mr. Sutton. But that was a war period, although it was after the 

 war. 



Mr. Brown. But it was at a time when we were still in the horse 

 and buggy days, when we did not have power equipment and did not 

 have power machinery, did not have the improved farming and 

 scientific methods. 



Mr. Sutton. But we still had the problem of feeding the world 

 then like we do today. 



Mr. Brown. Yes. 



Mr. Sutton. But, to be fair, would not you go to some years that 

 were not influenced by the war or the postwar period immediately 



91215 — 19 — ser. s, pt. 4 7 



