GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 953 



Mr. PoAGE. Wliv not? 



Mr. Wescott. Your subsidy, as you refer to it, would be your floor. 



Mr. PoAGE. Do I understand, then, you propose to take away the 

 floor price of 60 percent of parity and rely entirely upon the subsidy 

 of the compensatory payment? 



Mr. Wescott. To take it away; jes, sir. But in round figures, 

 if your support price is $1.50 and the actual market is below $1.50, 

 to let potatoes go on down, say, to $1.25, to where the consumer will 

 buy, and take the eligible potatoes and subsidize them at around 25 

 cents. 



Mr. Poage. In other words, just subsidize them back up to 60 

 percent of parity? 



Mr. Wescott. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Poage. I think I understand that now. Thank you. 



Mr. Pace. We are now on the question of payments. 



Mr. Andresen. I wanted to ask another question on acreage. 

 ^^'^lat percentage of the acreage and production is controlled by the 

 28,445 farmers who got $155,000,000? 



Mr. Case. I cannot answer that nationalh^ but in the State of 

 Minnesota it was about 50 percent, and in the State of North Dakota 

 about 70 percent. 



Mr. Andresen. In the State of Minnesota, 1,190 commercial 

 potato growers who received an average of $3,851 per farm had 50 

 percent of the production of the State. 



Mr. Case. Fift}' percent of the growers; I do not know whether it 

 was 50 percent of the production. I believe it w^as about 50 percent of 

 the production; yes. 



Mr. Andresen. I am just talking about commercial potato growers 

 who got the bulk of the payment. 



Mr. Case. Some of those were very large growers. 



Mr. Andresen. Then the commercial potato growers who have 

 heretofore enjoyed a most advantageous position under the act would 

 largeh' dominate the marketing agreements and acreage allotments? 



\h'. Case. Yes; based on past history, they would in acreage allot- 

 ments and, in voting on market agreements, they would vote their 

 production. 



Mr. Andresen. Under the proposal made by the Secretary of 

 Agriculture, each potato grower would receive the support price of 

 1,800 units, or approximately 16,524 bushels. Have you studied 

 that plan? 



Mr. Case. Yes, sir. I have discussed it w^th growers in our area; 

 and they are definitely opposed to it. Those 1,800 units are not 

 limited to potatoes; those are all crops, not just potatoes. 



Mr. Andresen. Those are all crops ; but assuming we had a farmer 

 who raised nothing else but potatoes, he would get the support price 

 on 16,524 bushels, as I understand. 



Mr. Case. Yes, sir. 



Mr. Andkesex. That certainh" would be a material reduction in 

 acreage for all of the commercial potato growers in the country. 



Mr. Case. A material reduction in the acreage of many commercial 

 potato growers in the country. 



!Mr. Andresen. Provided they limited their production to the 

 amount that could be produced at the support price, or 1,800 units? 



