GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 741 



Mr. Hill. You understand that you are in real difficulty with 

 Kiowa County. If you leave that wheat land lying without cultiva- 

 tion you will promote the Dust Bowl much more rapidly than you 

 would if you kept it cultivated. 



Mr. Entermille. That is correct. 



Mr. Hill. That is what a lot of people cannot understand. You 

 do not dare let that land stand without cultivation. 



Mr. PoAGE. Let me ask a question in that connection. I realize 

 what Mr. Hill says is correct, that if you cultiave the land you do not 

 get nearly as much blowing as you do if you leave it alone. I believe 

 it was suggested a minute ago that some of those people had actually 

 plowed up grass that had been planted and that had received soil- 

 conservation payments. 



You have authority, as I understand it, under the existing law, sec- 

 tion 34 of subsection B, to make adjustments for abnormal weather 

 conditions and trends and you said you were making adjustments for 

 trends in acreages during such period, and you have authority to make 

 adjustments for the promotion of soil-conservation practices. 



Ai'e you making any adjustments for the promotion of soil-conserva- 

 tion practices? 



Mr. Walker. They will be considered,* when adjusting the county 

 allotments. 



Mr. PoAGE. You are making them for trends, but you are not mak- 

 ing them for soil-conservation practices, is that right? 



Mr. Walker. Not mathematically. 



Mr. PoAGE. Are you doing it any way? 



Mr. Walker. The adjustment for conservation purposes is a 

 part of the consideration that is followed out in the State office when 

 you adjust between counties and in the county office by farms. 



Mr. Poage. Suppose I went out to Colorado as a lot of people from 

 Texas did? Suppose I went to Kiowa County or any of the rest of the 

 counties where a lot of people from my own area did go. Suppose I 

 got hold of one of those farms where somebody who had been farming 

 it for years past had complied with soil-conservation practices and 

 had sodded some of that land. My predecessor was entitled to 

 receive payment for the practices he carried on. I bought the land 

 from him and I had a right to plow it up and I did plow it up. I put 

 it in wheat and I still have it in wheat. Ai'e you going to give me the 

 same consideration that you give the man who has been farming there 

 for a dozen years and who has been growing wheat in the past but 

 who has never interferred with the soil-conservation practices? 

 Are you going to give me the same acreage that you give him, assuming 

 we both own a section and we both work it all in wheat? He has been 

 putting his all into wheat every year and I have been putting mine 

 into wheat since I bought it from my predecessor who had sodded it 

 in compliance with the soil-conservation practices. Are you going 

 to give us the same acreages? 



Mr. Walker. I doubt very seriously if you would think you had 

 been considered the same as that old producer when they get through 

 with you. In the first place, the county committee is authorized to 

 reclassify that land as noncropland. 



Mr. Poage. Under what authority have they the right to classify 

 it as noncropland? I have gi'own a crop on it for 3 years. Do j^ou 



