1076 . GENERAL FARM PROGRAM 



Following that time a considerable number came in and then 

 gradaally they located themselves apparently for biological reasons 

 down principally in southwestern Texas, where now there are approx- 

 imately 2)2 million grown. 



The industry has advanced tremendously in the past hundred 

 years, particuarly in the last 50 years. We now have beyond any 

 doubt the finest mohair that is grown anywhere in the world, and 

 that has been the result of careful breeding, of selection, of promo- 

 tion, and of the patience and industry of the growers who have 

 devoted themselves to making this a really important and vital 

 industry so far as fibers are concerned. 



To acquaint the committee just briefly, those of you who are not 

 familiar with the goats, and I will be very brief, I have a few pictures 

 here, and I want you to take a glance at these which show the back- 

 ground of the habitat of the Angoras and where they are grown 

 principally, and a good many pictures of them. 



In this period of time, the flocks grew up to where there were m.ore 

 than 4K million at the peak back in 1944. Following that time they 

 dwindled avvay some in numbers, but at this time there are around 

 3,000,000 head in the country. 



The consumption of mohair in the past has run an average, I think, 

 of around 20,000,000 pounds a year. I have a table here before m.e 

 from the Department of Agriculture which shows the mill consump- 

 tion ranging in 1937 from 20^ million pounds, 23 million in 1939, 

 jumping up to 1943, 29 million; 1944, 19 million; in 1945, 16 million; 

 1946, 23 million; in 1947, 18 million pounds. I do not have the com- 

 plete figures since then, but it dropped off considerably after that 

 time. 



The reason for that decline has been culmination of circumstances 

 over which the growers, of course, had no control, and for which they 

 have certainly no blame. During the war we brought in 7/2 million 

 pounds of Turkish mohair for strategic reasons — to keep the Germans 

 from, getting it, and it was dumped on the market at the end of the 

 war, and it has had a considerable eff"ect on oar own domestic market. 

 In 1941 the tariff on coarse wools, whicli is competitive fiber, though 

 much inferior, was dropped from about 25 cents a pound to around 

 13 or 14 cents a pound, whereas the tariff protection on fine wools 

 frotn Australia and elsewhere remained at 34 cents, reduced, you 

 know, about a year ago down to 25/2 cents. With this considerable 

 advantage, there was a great deal of stock piling during the war of 

 South American coarse wools, bought in this country by speculators 

 and others. So at the end of the war in 1946 and 1947, and in 1948, 

 tremendous amounts of selling of this foreign coarse wool took place, 

 which replaced the market that had formerly been given to the Angora 

 mohair producers. 



Before the war the average imports of those coarse wools ran 

 around 35,000,000 pounds per year. Since the war, the imports have 

 run up over 100,000,000 pounds in 1946, and averaging now around 

 50 to 60 million pounds a year, as contrasted, as I said, with the pre- 

 war averages of 35,000,000. 



So as the result of the Government's policy in encouraging the 

 import at extremely low tariff rates on the competitive South American 

 fibers, mostly the BA-5's from Argentina and Uraguay, as a result of 

 that the mohaii- producers were kind of crowded out of the market. 



