GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 735 



behind a story like that that you people were recommending that 

 Colorado take a 55 percent cut? I know we have increased our 

 acreage, but you asked us to do it. _ 



Mr. Walker. Apparently that article is based upon some rumor. 

 It is not based upon fact. 



Mr. Hill. You do not mean to tell me the newspapers just put 

 rumors in the paper. 



]Mr. Walker. I do not know but there is no such thing as a 55 

 percent cut for Colorado. 



Mr. Hill. Are you sure of that now? 



Mr. Walker. We do not have anything computed all the way 

 through as of now, but there is no evidence that such a large cut will 

 be made for Colorado as a State. 



Mr. Hill. Do you know what our percentage of increase has been 

 in some sections of Colorado since 1940? 



Mr. Walker. Here is another thing. Before you can really deter- 

 mine what the cut is going to be, you have to compute these trends 

 and give credit for diversion under previous programs. We have a 

 base period of 10 years. If they are saying 55 percent cut for a cer- 

 tain county from current plantings, meaning 1949, that might be pos- 

 sible for a certain county, but for the State as a whole it would be 

 impossible. 



Air. Hill. 'WTiat would that do to a county where the farming 

 practices do not lend themselves for the substitution of other crops 

 for wheat? I do not know what they could put in in Colorado do\vn 

 near the Dust Bowl. It looks like they would be making a Dust 

 Bowl again if those big counties were cut 55 percent. 



Mr. Walker. There has certainly been a lot of land plowed up in 

 the previous Dust Bowl area. 



Mr. Hill. The time to remedy that was when they were plowing 

 it up, not now. 



Mr. Walker. The local committees even attempted to prevent 

 this plowmg up but it was plowed up anyway, even land that for 3 

 years, conservation payments were made to restore to grass. That 

 land has been plowed up. The wheat acreage in Kiowa County, 

 Colo., in 1949 must be 15 to 20 times what it was at the end of the 

 war. 



Mr. Hill. It was 8 or 10 m 1940. Now it is 219,000 if my memory 

 serves me correctly. 



Mr. Walker. You have seen the same set of figures I have. 



Mr. Pace. While you are right there, might you not as well say 

 that particular cut is 55 percent? 



Mr. Walker. For that particular county I have already said it 

 might be that much. 



Mr. Pace. I understand in Oklahoma this year they cut the peanut 

 acreage in one county 57 percent. 



Mr. Albert. In my home county. 



Mr. Hill. We are all in the same boat. Some of these other people 

 that would like to buy bread for 10 or 11 cents a loaf might get in 

 trouble too because, after all, the power over the seasons is not 

 controlled by the Department of Agriculture. 



Here is a farmer who has lived in one of these communities you are 

 talking about. He has always grown a certain number of acres of 

 wheat. He has not increased nor cui"tailed his acreage because he is 



