744 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Hill. The point I make is that you can actually improve the 

 soil to protect it from blowing by taking out nothing but the kernel 

 of wheat. 



Mr. Hope. Will the gentleman from Wisconsin yield to me on that 

 point? I do not know of anyone who is contending that you can 

 conserve the soil and grow crops on it every year, but certainly by 

 following certain practices you can conserve the fertility as well as 

 maintain a better physical condition in the soil and prevent it from 

 blowing away. 



Mr. Murray. Just the opposite is true because what you do is 

 improve the physical condition of the soil but you are reducing your 

 fertility all the faster because you are raising more wheat, according 

 to your own story. You are raising more wheat and you are taking 

 more fertility out of the soil. 



Mr. Albert. Some of it comes out of the air and goes back into 

 the soil. 



Mr. PoAGE. You feel it is such poor country and there is so little 

 chemical nutriment in the soil that you are thinking in terms of 

 taking out that little bit. They have so much chemical nutriment in 

 the soil that it will run from a chemical standpoint a much longer 

 time than yours will, but it does need physical improvement. 



Mr. Murray. As near as I can tell, it is just mining. 



Mr. Hope. Of course, if you are speaking of just keeping every bit 

 of fertility in the soil we never could raise any soil depleting crops. 



Mr. Hill. Mr. Murray, you are in deep water. 



Mr. Murray. If you are going to conserve the soil, you have to 

 put everything back on there that you take out of it. 



Mr. Pace. Gentlemen, pardon me, we have a lot to do with a short 

 time to do it in. I am going to ask the committee to get right back 

 on wheat quotas. 



Is it correct that vou have in wheat this year 82,000,000 acres? 



Mr. Walker. 8f,670,000. 



Mr. Pace. And you propose to cut that acreage next year to 

 62,000,000? 



Mr. Walker. It depends upon the situation as it exists around the 

 first of July. 



Mr. Pace. What do you think, right now? 



Mr. Walker. I think the allotment will be somewhere between 62 

 and 65 million acres. 



Mr. Pace. Then what would be the cut; 25 percent? 



Mr. Walker. If it is 65,000,000, it would be about 20 percent, I 

 believe. 



Mr. Pace. Do you have here tables showing the allocation on the 

 basis of 62 or 65 million acres, allocation to States? 



Mr. Walker. No, we do not. 



Mr. Pace. Do you not have those available? 



Mr. Walker. We are working on those now. Remember, we can- 

 not compute the State allotment or the county allotment until we 

 determine the war crop credit under Public Law 12. We are in the 

 field now doing that. Within about 10 days that will all be in here. 

 Then after the June 10 crop report if the wheat crop remains about as 

 the May 10 estimate, the allotment would be in the neighborhood of 62 

 to 65 million. 



