750 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Mr. Bagwell. I would prefer to let Mr. Wolley explain the policy 

 back of the selection of years. 



Mr. PoAGE. The present law provides that every man in the 

 county gets the same percentage of his tilled acres. Frankly, I like 

 it. I think it is the best system we have ever had. But I noticed 

 you changed it back to the old system that we did not like. 



Mr. Bagwell. I think that may have been a factor in it. Whether 

 that is the only reason, I do not know. 



Mr. WooLLEY. The main premise we made the changes on was what 

 Mr. Bagwell mentioned. We were trying to take out of all of the 

 previous legislation those things which were difficult to explain to a 

 farmer with three different allotments for three different crops on the 

 same farm. Why do you use 10 years in one case and 5 years in the 

 other? Why do you use cropland in one case and history in another? 



The farmers always say, "if you would treat us the same with respect 

 to all these crops, it would work out on my farm. But you have them 

 all different." 



What we did was to get our various commodity people together 

 and went over and over again those provisions which were more form 

 than real substance and tried to stick to substantive propositions. 



A/fr. PoAGE. I want you to keep in mind that we thiuK there is a 

 whole lot of substance in this cotton proposition and you have changed 

 the substance on us very materially. • 



Mr. WooLLEY. I realize there are certainly two strong points of 

 view with respe?t to cotton. However, in the case of wheat the 

 people want to be on the basis expressed here. Our State people, in 

 thorough consultation with their county people, have gona over this 

 many, many times and they are in agreement that it maKes sense in 

 the aggregate. 



Mr. PoAGE. You are putting the wheat people on this for the first 

 time. I know they have actually worked it before but this is the 

 first time it has been written in the law. You had it in the law in 

 cotton and did not IIkc it and have changed it. We have the cotton 

 law written very plainly the other way. It is very plain today that 

 every man in the county gets the same percentage of his tilled acres. 



Mr. WooLLEY. Except that there are some exceptions to that. It 

 does not always work out that way. 



Mr. PoAGE. There are some about areas, of course. You can 

 establish areas and I know of two or three cases where you have done 

 that, but I do not know of any large number of exceptions to that. 



Mr. WooLLEY. The area problem has been pretty vexing in cotton 

 as a general proposition. 



Mr. PoAGE. I do want the record to show plainly that as far as I 

 am concerned, I believe that the percentage of tilled acres would work 

 far better than the individual historical basis, and we have tried 

 them both under the law. 



Mr. WooLLEY. But you have not had any criticism of it which 

 would apply to the way in which we have allotted wheat acreage. 

 You find a farmer in west Texas who is raising wheat and who is 

 raising cotton and you will have difficulty explaining to him why you 

 do them in two different wa;ys. 



Mr. PoAGE. I happen to be that very farmer. I have just about 

 the same acres of wheat and of cotton and try to have them every 

 year. The other thu-d of our land we normally try to plant in grain 



