GENERAL FARM PROGRAIVI 749 



I would like to have you explain what the difference will be in effect 

 between the two proposals. 



Mr. Bagwell. Air. Hope, the difference in years is obvious. In 

 the other language, the adjustment there for trends in acreage is the 

 same. The language "abnormal conditions" has been substituted 

 in place of "weather." Our thought was that that gives the Secretary 

 a little broader authority for adjustment than the present language. 

 There are other abnormal conditions affecting acreage besides weather. 

 It is slightly broader authority for making adjustments than now exists. 

 Then too, we have also included authority to use the previous allot- 

 ment for the State or county, as the case may be. 



The theory of that is that once you get a quota program going and 

 you have a good allotment established, all other factors are solidified 

 in that allotment and therefore you ought to consider such allotment 

 in future years, along with the other factors. 



Mr. Hope. Do you mean you would take the 5 years into consider- 

 ation but you might go back 5 years further and give some weight 

 to that? 



Mr. Bagwell. No; we would consider straight history with the 

 necessary adjustments, but we would also give some weight to the 

 previous years' allotment. 



Mr. Hope. You mean within the 5-year period? 



Mr. Bagwell. Yes. 



Mr. Hope. You would not go back of the 5-year period? 



Mr. Bagwell. No; it is not limited there, but I think it is inferred 

 that the acreage allotments we are talking about are for the 5-year 

 period. 



Mr. Hope. Will you make the same explanation, differentiating 

 between the new proposal and the present law as far as the allotments 

 to farms are concerned? 



Mr. Bagwell. You gentlemen have just discussed this morning 

 what the present law provides. It is tillable acreage, crop rotation 

 practices, type of soil, and topography. Those are pretty general. 

 Some of you gentlemen have expressed surprise that in those standards 

 you could find history at all. We thought, in the interest of spelling 

 out what we actually do, we ought to say history, that is, past acreage 

 of wheat on the farm, and then take the other factors into account. 

 Among the other factors is the previous farm allotment. There is 

 the same reason there as for taking the previous State allotment into 

 account in establishing State allotments for wheat. Abnormal con- 

 ditions is another factor. There might have been a flood on a farm 

 which washed out some of the wheat or there might have been other 

 abnormal conditions affecting acreage. The Secretar\^ is then to 

 take into account land, labor and equipment available for the produc- 

 tion of wheat; and the soil and other physical factors. I might sa}^ 

 at that point that we have tried to make these allotment factors 

 uniform for all of the different crops. The marketing quota law con- 

 tains dift'erences between commodities that are awfully hard to explain. 

 About the only explanation we could ever give was that different 

 people worked on them. 



Mr. PoAGE. Is that the explanation you give for changing cotton 

 allotments so as to put them on a historical basis, because the wheat 

 allotments were on that basis? 



91215 — 49 — ser. s, pt. 4 9 



