GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 033 



I am not in favor of a high support price, but I am in favor of a 

 support price that will serve as insurance to prevent disastrous losses. 

 A high support price means, or leads to overexpansion and overproduc- 

 tion with resulting high costs to the Government. 



I heartily endorse the statement presented by Mr. Wescott. 



First. I believe that a flexible price support program of 60 to 90 

 percent of parity is desirable. Such a price would tend to discourage 

 overexpansion and keep production in line with consumption. 



Second. I believe that compliance with acreage allotments and 

 marketing agreements — where marketing agreements are feasible — 

 need to be made a basis of price support. The consuming public is 

 entitled to the best grades of potatoes, with the Government taking the 

 low-grade potatoes in years of surplus. 



Third. I believe that a practical program of compensatory or pro- 

 duction payments needs to be made available to the Department of 

 Agriculture to encourage compliance with acreage goals. 



Fourth. I believe that a definite formula for establishing equitable 

 potato-acreage goals needs to be incorporated in the law. 



I have already confessed that I am just a dirt farmer, but I believe 

 that my statements are essential for an agricultural program, and I 

 hope that you gentlemen will give them serious thought. 



I do not know how to run one of these finger machines to type this 

 out, so I just wrote it in long hand. 



Thank you very much for your courtesy. 



Mr. Pace. Thank you. We would like to know if there is a better 

 way. 



Mr. Davis. Thank you. 



STATEMENT OFE. W. CAKE, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ASSOCIATION 

 OF VIRGINIA POTATO AND VEGETABLE GROWERS 



Mr. Pace. We will hear next from Dr. Cake. 



Mr. Cake. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name 

 is E. W. Cake. I am executive secretary of the Association of Vir- 

 ginia Potato and Vegetable Growers. We represent all the commer- 

 cial production area in Virginia — the two Eastern Shore counties, and 

 the three counties in the Norfolk area. 



I am here first to substantiate the statement made a little while 

 ago by Mr. Harry Wescott. We in Virginia have been discussing 

 this situation in our meetings and we have come to agreement and 

 we are favor of 60-90 percent of parity as price support on potatoes. 



We are in favor of compliance with acreage goals and marketing 

 agreements as a condition of price support. We are in favor of per- 

 missive compensatory payments to allow for controlling acreage by 

 the Government to get compliance of growers who do not cooperate. 



We are also in favor of a formula being written into the law for the 

 Secretary of Agriculture to use, a mandatoiy formula he must use in 

 establishing acreage goals for the States. 



We on the Eastern Shore would like to go one step further. We 

 would like to give you our proposals for this formula. We are inter- 

 ested in making it just as simple as we can possibly make it, so that no 

 Member of Congress or anyone else can say that it is a complicated 

 formula. I will try to state it in slightly different language, from that 

 used by Mr. Wescott, to help make it a little clearer, if 1 can. Seven 



