970 GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



less money. There will be no rigid control. Ii will not freeze pro- 

 duction in any certain area. I cannot help but take tobacco right 

 back to you and tell you what you already know, that the tobacco 

 allotment has provided an arbitrarily high fixed value lor land which 

 can never be substantiated on anv other basis. 



Mr. Pace. I do not think there would be any argument about that. 



Mr. WiCKHAM. That is the thing we want to keep away fjom. 



Mr. Andresen. Mr. Wickbam, just one or two more questions. 

 Snice the support program went into operation, have you had any 

 new producers go into business on Long Island? 



Mr. WicKHAM. No, sir. During the Steagall period when pro- 

 duction was stimulated, we did have some. 1 say that in a large sense. 

 There have been boys who started in. There have been split-ups 

 when a man and his son were working together. There is, as you 

 know, a small adjastment available for that type of thing, new men 

 going into the business. But the thing that has hurt so, and the 

 thing which we are pretty well convinced this 60-perc-ent business will 

 lick is the same 10 percent whom, I think, all over the country have 

 profited by the Government program and who have increased their 

 acreage and incomes. 



Mr. Andresen. What percentage of the crop you produced in 1948 

 went to the Government? 



Mr. WiCKHAM. 1 am not prepared to state on that because our 

 potatoes are handled through a dealer in a good many cases. I would 

 say ours are saclved by a second party in many cases and sold either 

 to a third party or the Government and 1 have no knowledge of where 

 they went. The potatoes we handled directly, maybe 10 or 15 per- 

 cent, went directly to commercial channels. I would say 50 percent 

 went to the Goveinment. That is a guess. 



Mr. Andresen. Your books would show that? 



Mr. WicKHAM. No, sir; my books show that, they go to such and 

 such a dealer. He is a certified dealer and handles onh^ potatoes from 

 farmers in the program. His books would show where they go, but 

 not mine. 



Mr. Andresen. Then you have no knowledge at all of how much 

 you get out of this money the Government pays out? 



Mr. WiCKHAM. Yes; we have, because thij margin the dealer can 

 get is set at the county and State and O. K.'d at Washington levels. 



Mr. Andresen. Then 3^oa think about 50 percent of your potatoes 

 went to the Government? 



Mr. WtCKHAM. That would be a guess. 



Mr. Andresen. Is that general on Long Island? 



Mr. WiCKHAM. I would say so. Would it not be necessary to do so? 



Mr. Andresen. I am buying Maine potatoes and have been buying 

 them all winter. You can get Idaho and California potatoes here 

 but no Long Island potatoes, that I know of. 



Mr. WiCKHAM. At this time of the year we will advise you to buy 

 Maine. 



Mr. Andresen. I have bought them all year. It appears that the 

 production is about 50 percent over what it should be. 



Mr. Wtckham. I think it was brouaht out this morning that the 

 consumption of potatoes is relatively inelastic. The production this 

 year was four hundred and some million bushels and we feel that the 



